Caudill v. Maloney's Discount Stores

• Court: Supreme Court of Kentucky
• Writing for the Court: REED
• Citation: Caudill v. Maloney's Discount Stores, 560 S.W.2d 15 (Ky. 1977)
• Decision Date: 09 December 1977
• Parties: Reva CAUDILL, Movant, v. MALONEY'S DISCOUNT STORES et al., Respondents.

Page 15

560 S.W.2d 15

Reva CAUDILL, Movant, v. MALONEY'S DISCOUNT STORES et al., Respondents.

Supreme Court of Kentucky.

Dec. 9, 1977.

John David Preston, Preston, Paintsville, George Chad Perry, III, Paintsville, for movant.

C. W. Swinford, Gary L. Stage, Stoll, Keenon & Park, Lexington, for respondents.

REED, Justice.

Reva Caudill was awarded workmen's compensation benefits for total and permanent disability by the Board. Her employer, Maloney's Discount Stores, appealed the determination to the Johnson Circuit Court. That court upheld the Board's award. Maloney's then appealed to the Court of Appeals where the circuit court's judgment was reversed and the award set aside. The circuit court was directed to remand the case to the Board "to make appropriate findings as to the availability of work which the claimant could perform and to make an award in conformity with such findings." See Maloney's Discount Stores v. Caudill, Ky., 547 S.W.2d 784, 785 (1977). We granted Caudill's motion for discretionary review, and now reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals and affirm the judgment of the Johnson Circuit Court.

Reva Caudill is forty-one years old. She has eight dependents. She completed school through the seventh grade and obtained a high school equivalency certificate. Her only work prior to employment by Maloney's was eight months as a motel maid. She was hired by Maloney's as a stock clerk in September 1970 and worked until she was injured in a work-connected accident in August 1974. She has not worked since the accident.

Her job at Maloney's required her to stock shelves, squat, bend and be on her feet all day. She has no training in any occupation but manual labor. The five physicians who testified for her concurred that the accident left her with a condition called "bicipital tendonitis," a chronic inflammation of the bicep tendon, which causes pain on movement of her right arm. Some of the medical testimony was to the effect that her disability was enhanced by the presence of obesity and a diabetic condition. She is right-handed.

Her physicians all testified that she could not perform manual labor requiring lifting, and that any kind of extensive movement of her arm and shoulder would cause her pain. One of her physicians opined that she might perform sedentary work. Another physician stated that he could find no progress to show that she could ever work. The general tenor of the testimony was that while corrective surgery was a possibility, the results from such surgery were often poor, leaving the patient in worse condition than before.

Mrs. Caudill gave considerable testimony concerning her condition as it related to her work abilities. She also testified that she could do nothing with her right arm, including housework, because of the pain.

The Board, at least implicitly, found that the claimant, Caudill, was so physically impaired that she was not capable of performing any kind of work of regular employment....