Freeman v. Southwire Co., A04A2145.

• Decision Date: 22 September 2004
• Docket Number: No. A04A2145.,A04A2145.
• Citation: 269 Ga. App. 692,605 S.E.2d 95
• Parties: FREEMAN v. SOUTHWIRE COMPANY.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

605 S.E.2d 95

269 Ga. App. 692

FREEMAN v. SOUTHWIRE COMPANY.

No. A04A2145.

Court of Appeals of Georgia.

September 22, 2004.

Certiorari Denied February 21, 2005.

Smith, Wallis & Scott, Kenneth A. Smith, Carrollton, for appellant.

Ernest C. Barrett, Carrollton, for appellee.

BLACKBURN, Presiding Judge.

We granted Sandra Freeman permission to appeal the superior court's affirmance of the Workers' Compensation Board's ("Board") decision to deny her workers' compensation benefits. Adopting the findings of the administrative law judge ("ALJ"), the Board had ruled that her refusal to continue performing the specially-tailored lighter-duty job which accommodated her work-related injury was unjustified under OCGA § 34-9-240(a), where the basis for that refusal was a new debilitating nonjob-related disease which she had contracted after she had been working in the lighter-duty position. We agree with the Board and the superior court and affirm.

Because the relevant facts are not in dispute, and because Freeman contends that the Board applied an erroneous theory of law to the facts, we apply a de novo standard of review. Hill v. Omni Hotel at CNN Center.¹

In the absence of legal error, the factual findings of the State Board of Workers' Compensation must be affirmed by the superior court and by the Court of Appeals when supported by any evidence in the administrative record. However, erroneous applications of law to undisputed facts, as well as decisions based on erroneous theories of law, are subject to the de novo standard of review.

(Citation and punctuation omitted.) Id.

The relevant facts show that Freeman's job as an inspector for Southwire involved repetitive hand movements to cut and manipulate certain wires, which caused Freeman to develop carpal tunnel syndrome. At the doctor's recommendation that this portion of her job be eliminated, Southwire reduced Freeman's job responsibilities to lighter duties so that she needed only to inspect machines and wire samples in the plant as she walked around, with no cutting or manipulation involved. Freeman agrees that this lighter duty was suitable to her capacity as restricted by the carpal tunnel syndrome. She performed this lighter duty until she developed Sjogren's disease, which caused her ankles and legs to swell and prevented her from walking throughout the plant to conduct the inspections. It is undisputed that this new disease was nonwork-related. Because the Sjogren's disease incapacitated her from performing the lighter-duty job, Freeman resigned and sought workers' compensation benefits for permanent partial disability.

The ALJ hearing the matter relied heavily on OCGA § 34-9-240(a), which provides that "[i]f an injured employee refuses employment procured for him or her and suitable to his or her capacity, such employee shall not be entitled to any compensation ... at any time during the continuance of such refusal unless in the opinion of the board such refusal was justified." Following a hearing, the ALJ found that the lighter-duty job was suitable to Freeman's capacity and that she was not justified in refusing to continue to work in that position where the reason was the development of a nonjob-related disease that prevented her from performing the job. The Board agreed and adopted the findings and conclusions of the ALJ. The superior court affirmed the Board's decision.

The question on appeal is whether, under OCGA § 34-9-240(a), the development of a new nonjob-related disability after an employee begins working a lighter-duty job (which was suitable to accommodate a prior work-related injury) justifies the employee's refusal of the lighter-duty job. We hold it does not and therefore affirm the superior court's affirmance of the Board's denial of benefits to...