Preview:

NO. COA97-1461 NORTH CAROLINA COURT OF APPEALS Filed: DANA L. GARREN, Employee, Plaintiff-Appellee v. P.H. GLATFELTER CO., Self-Insured Employer, (ALEXIS RISK MANAGEMENT SERVICES, INC. Servicing Agent), Defendant-Appellant Appeal by defendant from opinion and award of the North Carolina Industrial Commission filed 28 August 1997. the Court of Appeals 27 August 1998. David Gantt for plaintiff-appellee. Lewis & Roberts, P.L.L.C., by Jack S. Holmes and John H. Ruocchio, for defendant-appellant. McGEE, Judge. Defendant P.H. Glatfelter Co. appeals from opinion and award of the North Carolina Industrial Commission awarding plaintiff compensation of $466.00 per week from 5 April 1994 until plaintiff returns to work or until further order of the Commission. The award arose from plaintiff establishing she Heard in 6 October 1998

suffers from an occupational disease, specifically a rotator cuff tear. Defendant was ordered to pay plaintiff's medical bills as

they relate to her occupational disease and to provide vocational rehabilitation. Plaintiff was employed by defendant for seventeen years and

worked as a reclaim operator from 13 January 1992 until 5 April 1994, her last day of work. From April 1993 to April 1994, The

plaintiff also worked part-time as a relief supervisor.

Commission's findings of fact stated that as a reclaim operator, plaintiff ran two machines at once. She lifted defective bobbins

of cigarette paper onto the reclaim machine, threaded the paper through the machine and attached it to an end spool. She ran the

bobbin through the machine onto another core, creating a new bobbin free of defects. Plaintiff then removed the bobbin and

stacked it on a pallet, sometimes up to fifty-five bobbins high. Plaintiff ran seventy to eighty bobbins, weighing six to twenty pounds, during an eight hour shift. When the cores of the

bobbins were damaged, plaintiff frequently beat them into place with her hands. Plaintiff's supervisor, Carolyn Owenby,

testified that in the spring of 1994 plaintiff complained of a "rotary cuff" injury. At that time, however, Owenby testified

plaintiff did not seek assistance from her employer regarding her injury. Rather, plaintiff stated she believed she had injured Plaintiff, working with an

her shoulder cleaning houses.

assistant, supplemented her income with defendant by cleaning ten to twelve houses per week for eight months, ending in April 1994. Plaintiff testified she first felt pain in her shoulder in 1991, three years before going to the doctor. Plaintiff went to

her family doctor, Dr. James Keeley, "before March" of 1994, and received a cortisone shot in her arm. The cortisone shot did not

help, and plaintiff went to an orthopaedic surgeon, Dr. Angus W. Graham, III, on 17 March 1994. Dr. Graham diagnosed plaintiff

with a rotator cuff tear and performed three surgeries on plaintiff over a six-month period. unsuccessful. The surgeries were

Plaintiff consulted Dr. James S. Thompson on 31

January 1995, and Dr. Thompson performed a fourth surgery, which was more successful. Dr. Thompson recommended plaintiff undergo

physical therapy before returning to work. I. Defendant first argues the Commission erred in concluding that plaintiff's rotator cuff tear was the result of an occupational disease, and that plaintiff was disabled as a result. We disagree. An occupational disease is defined as:

Any disease, other than hearing loss covered in another subdivision of this section, which is proven to be due to causes and conditions which are characteristic of and peculiar to a particular trade, occupation or employment, but excluding all ordinary diseases of life to which the general public is equally exposed outside of the employment. N.C. Gen. Stat.

Download 97-1461-8.pdf

South Carolina Law