NC COA Decides Handful of Workers' Comp Cases

Late last month, the North Carolina Court of Appeals published their opinions in the following workers' compensation cases:

Archie v. Kirk: The plaintiff worked for Edward Kirk changing billboard advertisements. Kirk provided necessary tools and protection gear to the plaintiff. In 2006, on a larger job for which Kirk hired an additional two workers, the plaintiff was electrocuted and burnt by a "power pole" which was near the billboard. On appeal from the Industrial Commission , the defendants claimed that the plaintiff was not an employee and that Kirk did not have three or more regular employees working on the day the plaintiff was injured. The Court of Appeals affirmed the Commission's determinations that there was an employer-employee relationship, the plaintiff was not an independent contractor, and the plaintiff was entitled to medical and disability benefits.

Chandler v. Atlantic Scrap & Processing: The plaintiff cleaned buildings owned by Atlantic Scrap. She was walking down a flight of concrete stairs and fell backwards striking her head, neck and shoulder. She suffered a traumatic brain injury which caused severely diminished cognitive functioning. Her husband had to provide attendant care services because she needed care 24-7 and defendants had denied in-home attendant care services. On appeal, the Court of Appeals held that the Industrial Commission had to award interest to Mr. Chandler for the attendant care services he provided because such services constitute "medical compensation." The Court also rejected all of defendant's issues on appeal, including the well-worn argument that attendant care awards require pre-authorization from the Commission.

Malloy v. Davis Mechanical Inc.: The defendant appealed the NC Industrial Commission's determination that the mediated settlement agreement was not fair and just and thus unenforceable. The Court held that the Commission had erred in reviewing new medical bills which were not available at the time of the mediation and also erred when they considered the plaintiff's child support lien. The Court remanded back to the Commission to reconsider whether the mediated settlement agreement was fair and just excluding the aforementioned materials from consideration.

Shaw v. U.S. Airways: Mr. Curry Shaw sustained a lower back injury in 2000 when lifting luggage. In 2008 Mr. Shaw died, and "the Commission concluded that Curry Shaw died of methadone toxicity – a direct result of his methadone use and a proximate result of his original compensable back injury." Defendants appealed, contending that Mr. Shaw's death was not proximately related to his compensable work injury. Given that Mr. Curry was taking Methadone because of his workplace injury, the Court stated that "to assert that Curry Shaw’s death was solely the result of a non-work related liver disease is an untenable argument" and rejected Defendant's contention.