Chambers v. Transit Management

• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Writing for the Court: Parker
• Citation: Chambers v. Transit Management, 636 S.E.2d 553, 360 N.C. 609 (N.C. 2006)
• Decision Date: 17 November 2006
• Docket Number: No. 527A05.,527A05.
• Parties: Hubert CHAMBERS, Employee v. TRANSIT MANAGEMENT, Employer, Self Insured (Compensation Claims Solutions, Servicing Agent).

Page 553

636 S.E.2d 553

Hubert CHAMBERS, Employee v. TRANSIT MANAGEMENT, Employer, Self Insured (Compensation Claims Solutions, Servicing Agent).

No. 527A05.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

November 17, 2006.

Appeal pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 7A-30(2) from the decision of a divided panel of the Court of Appeals, 172 N.C.App. 540, 616 S.E.2d 372 (2005), affirming an opinion and award filed 3 February 2004 by the North Carolina Industrial Commission. On 3 November 2005, the Supreme Court allowed

defendant's petition for discretionary review as to additional issues. Heard in the Supreme Court 14 March 2006.

Sellers, Hinshaw, Ayers, Dortch & Lyons, P.A., by Robert A. Whitlow and John F. Ayers III, Charlotte, for plaintiff-appellee.

Smith Law Firm, P.C., by John Brem Smith; and Hedrick Eatman Gardner & Kincheloe, L.L.P., by Jennifer Ingram Mitchell and M. Duane Jones, Charlotte, for defendant-appellant.

Samuel A. Scudder, S. Neal Camak, George W. Lennon, and Charles R. Hassell, Jr., Raleigh, for the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, amicus curiae.

PARKER, Chief Justice.

This case arises from proceedings before the North Carolina Industrial Commission (the Commission) and raises the issues of whether the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the Commission's opinion and award concluding (i) that plaintiff's ulnar neuropathy was a compensable occupational disease pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 97-53(13), (ii) that plaintiff suffered a cervical spine injury as a result of a specific traumatic incident pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 97-2(6), (iii) that plaintiff's cervical spine condition was a compensable occupational disease pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 97-53(13), and (iv) that plaintiff was entitled to continuing disability benefits pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 97-29. Because we determine that the Commission applied an incorrect legal standard in finding plaintiff's ulnar neuropathy and cervical spine condition to be compensable occupational diseases pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 97-53(13) and the cervical spine condition to be a specific traumatic incident pursuant to N.C.G.S. § 97-2(6), we reverse the decision of the Court of Appeals. We do not reach the question whether the Court of Appeals erred in affirming the Commission's award of continuing disability benefits under N.C.G.S. § 97-29.

The record shows that on 4 December 2000 plaintiff was employed by Transit Management of Charlotte (defendant) as a bus driver. Plaintiff had been so employed for approximately thirty years. Plaintiff drove two types of buses, the Flexible bus and the Nova bus; during the course of his routes plaintiff used both hands approximately ninety percent to one hundred percent of the time. On 4 December 2000 plaintiff was assigned a new bus route. At some point during his shift, plaintiff experienced severe pain in his left arm, shoulder, and neck. Plaintiff requested a relief driver approximately six hours into his shift.

Plaintiff did not notify defendant's director of safety and administration until 14 December 2000 and did not file an Employee Injury and Illness Report until 18 December 2000. Plaintiff initially was unsure whether his conditions were related to his employment or arose from other factors, including yard work. An initial diagnosis stated that plaintiff noted no specific "inciting event" causing injury.

Following visits to his family physician and several orthopedists, plaintiff was referred to Tim E. Adamson, M.D., a neurosurgeon, who diagnosed plaintiff with a "double crush syndrome," which he described as a relationship between two injuries: a left ulnar nerve entrapment affecting the elbow and a cervical spine condition affecting the neck. Dr. Adamson performed two surgeries on plaintiff. Following a functional capacity evaluation indicating plaintiff's level of function at sedentary to light physical demand, Dr. Adamson gave plaintiff a thirty percent permanent partial impairment rating for his left arm.

Plaintiff's claim was heard by Deputy Commissioner Nancy W. Gregory, who filed an opinion and award on 24 February 2003 denying plaintiff's claim for workers' compensation benefits. Plaintiff appealed to the Full Commission, which filed an opinion and award on 3 February 2004 reversing the deputy commissioner and concluding that plaintiff's ulnar nerve entrapment neuropathy and cervical spine condition were compensable occupational diseases and that the injury to the cervical spine qualified as a specific traumatic incident. The Commission also awarded plaintiff continuing disability benefits. The Court of Appeals concluded that the record sufficiently supported the Commission's findings of fact and conclusions of law.

Standard of Review

The Commission has exclusive original jurisdiction over workers' compensation cases and has the duty to hear evidence and file its award, "together with a statement of the findings of fact, rulings of law, and other matters pertinent to the questions at issue." N.C.G.S. § 97-84 (2005). Appellate review of an award from the Industrial Commission is generally limited to two issues: (i) whether the findings of fact are supported by competent evidence, and (ii) whether the conclusions of law are justified by the findings of fact. Clark v. Wal-Mart, 360 N.C. 41, 42-43, 619 S.E.2d 491, 492 (2005) (citing Hendrix v. Linn-Corriher Corp., 317 N.C. 179, 186, 345 S.E.2d 374, 379 (1986)). If the conclusions of the Commission are based upon a deficiency of evidence or misapprehension of the law, the case should be remanded so "`that the evidence [may] be considered in its true legal light.'" Id. at 43, 619 S.E.2d 491, 619 S.E.2d at 492 (quoting McGill v. Town of Lumberton, 215 N.C. 752, 754, 3 S.E.2d 324, 326 (1939) (alteration in original)).

N.C.G.S. § 97-53(13)

Section 97-53(13) defines an occupational disease as: "Any disease ... 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.G.S. § 97-53(13) (2005).

For an occupational disease to be compensable under N.C.G.S. § 97-53(13) it must be

(1) characteristic of persons engaged in the particular trade or occupation in which the [plaintiff] is engaged; (2) not an ordinary disease of life to which the public generally is equally exposed with those engaged in that particular trade or occupation; and (3) there must be "a causal connection between the disease and the [plaintiff's] employment."

Rutledge v. Tultex Corp./Kings Yarn, 308 N.C. 85, 93, 301 S.E.2d 359, 365 (1983) (quoting Hansel v. Sherman Textiles, 304 N.C. 44, 52, 283 S.E.2d 101, 105-06 (1981)) (citing Booker v. Duke Med. Ctr., 297 N.C. 458, 468, 475, 256 S.E.2d 189, 196, 200 (1979)).

This Court stated in Rutledge:

To satisfy the first and second elements it is not necessary that the disease originate exclusively from or be unique to the particular trade or occupation in question. All ordinary diseases of life are not excluded from the statute's coverage. Only such ordinary diseases of life to which the general public is exposed equally with workers in the particular trade or occupation are excluded.

Id. (citing Booker, 297 N.C. at 472-75, 256 S.E.2d at 198-200). In cases where the employment exposed the worker to a greater risk of contracting the disease than the general public, the first two elements are satisfied. Rutledge, 308 N.C. at 93-94, 301 S.E.2d at 365. "The greater risk in such cases provides the nexus between the disease and the employment which makes them an appropriate subject for workman's compensation." Booker, 297 N.C. at 475, 256 S.E.2d at 200.

The holding in Rutledge, which arose in the context of a claim for chronic obstructive lung disease, see 308 N.C. at 87, 301 S.E.2d at 362, also applies where other diseases are at issue. In Futrell v. Resinall Corporation the Court of Appeals applied the Rutledge test where a plaintiff contended that he contracted carpal tunnel syndrome as the result of his employment. 151 N.C.App. 456, 458-59, 566 S.E.2d 181, 183 (2002), aff'd per curiam, 357 N.C. 158, 579 S.E.2d 269 (2003).

The Court of Appeals correctly noted

there is no authority from this State which allows us to ignore the well-established requirement that a plaintiff seeking to prove an occupational disease show that the employment placed him at a greater risk for contracting the condition, even where the condition may have been aggravated but not originally caused by the plaintiff's employment.

Id. at 460, 566 S.E.2d 181, 566 S.E.2d at 184. The court explained that

if the first two elements of the Rutledge test were meant to be altered or ignored where a [plaintiff] simply argued aggravation or contribution as opposed to contraction, then our courts would not have consistently defined the third element of the Rutledge test as being met where the [plaintiff] can establish that the employment caused him to contract the disease, or where he can establish that it significantly contributed to or aggravated the disease. Rutledge and subsequent case law applying its three-prong test make clear that evidence tending to show that the employment simply aggravated or contributed to the employee's condition goes only to the issue of causation, the third element of the Rutledge test. Regardless of how an employee meets the causation prong ..., the employee must nevertheless satisfy the remaining two prongs of the Rutledge test by establishing that the employment placed him at a greater risk for contracting the condition than the general public.

Id. (citing Norris v. Drexel Heritage Furnishings, Inc., 139 N.C.App. 620, 622, 534 S.E.2d 259, 261 (2000), cert. denied, 353 N.C. 378, 547 S.E.2d 15 (2001); Hardin v. Motor Panels, Inc., 136 N.C.App. 351, 354, 524 S.E.2d 368, 371, disc. rev. denied, 351 N.C. 473, 543 S.E.2d 488 (2000)).

In the instant case the Commission applied an...