Hyler v. GTE Products Co.

• Decision Date: 12 February 1993
• Docket Number: No. 96PA92,96PA92
• Citation: 333 N.C. 258,425 S.E.2d 698
• Parties: Hassell HYLER, v. GTE PRODUCTS CO. and American Motorists Insurance Co.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 698

425 S.E.2d 698

333 N.C. 258

Hassell HYLER, v. GTE PRODUCTS CO. and American Motorists Insurance Co.

No. 96PA92.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Feb. 12, 1993.

On discretionary review of an unpublished decision of the Court of Appeals, 105 N.C.App. 443, 413 S.E.2d 801 (1991), reversing a decision of the Industrial Commission, entered 31 August 1990, which denied the plaintiff's request under N.C.G.S. § 97-25 for continuing medical expenses. Heard in the Supreme Court on 2 November 1992.

Patterson, Harkavy, Lawrence, Van Noppen & Okun by Henry N. Patterson, Jr., and Martha A. Geer, Raleigh and Patterson, Harkavy, Lawrence, Van Noppen & Ukon by Jonathan R. Harkavy, Greensboro, for the plaintiff-appellee.

Tuggle, Duggins & Meschan, P.A., by Joseph Brotherton and J. Reed Johnston, Jr., Greensboro, for defendants-appellants.

Kathleen Shannon Glancy, Wilmington, for the North Carolina Academy of Trial Lawyers, amicus curiae.

MITCHELL, Justice.

Certain facts are uncontroverted in this worker's compensation action. The plaintiff, Hassell Hyler, suffered a compensable injury to his left knee on 2 January 1980, while employed by the defendant, GTE Products. The plaintiff underwent six knee surgeries between January of 1980 and June of 1983; in the June 1983 surgery, the plaintiff's knee joint was replaced. By 24 May 1984, the plaintiff's knee had reached its maximum medical improvement, but he was left with permanent partial disability of his left leg.

The parties agree that there is a substantial risk that the plaintiff's prosthetic knee will fail and that the knee replacement surgery will have to be performed again. Because of this risk, the plaintiff must be seen at least annually by his orthopedist in order to monitor the condition of his knee. The condition of the plaintiff's knee has not materially deteriorated since June 1984.

On 14 February 1985, the Industrial Commission approved the parties' final agreement entered on Commission Form 26 in which the defendants agreed to pay compensation to the plaintiff for the permanent partial disability of his left leg. This form agreement contained no provision concerning the plaintiff's medical expenses related to his compensable injury. The plaintiff was last paid compensation by the defendants on 25 February 1985. On 19 February 1986, the plaintiff sought to reopen his claim before the Industrial Commission, asking for additional compensation for his disability based on the grounds of a change of condition as provided in N.C.G.S. § 97-47. On 10 March 1987, the plaintiff further requested that the Commission order GTE Products and its insurance carrier, American Motorists Insurance Co., to pay the plaintiff's continuing medical expenses as mandated by N.C.G.S. § 97-25. A deputy commissioner entered an award on 16 August 1989 requiring the defendants to pay the plaintiff's continuing medical expenses incurred as a result of his knee injury. On 31 August 1990, the Industrial Commission entered an order reversing the deputy commissioner's award on the ground that N.C.G.S. § 97-47 required the plaintiff to demonstrate, as a condition for payment of future medical expenses under N.C.G.S. § 97-25, either that his condition had changed for the worse or that evidence bearing on the need for future medical care had developed or had become available following the Commission's approval of the parties' last agreement for compensation.

The plaintiff appealed to the Court of Appeals, which reversed the Commission's order after concluding, in an unpublished opinion, that the defendants must pay for the plaintiff's "future medical expenses which his artificial knee will assuredly require." The defendants' petition for discretionary review of the decision of the Court of Appeals was allowed by this Court on 24 June 1992.

Because we conclude that the "change of condition" requirement of N.C.G.S. § 97-47 does not apply to the plaintiff's request for medical expenses under N.C.G.S. § 97-25, we also conclude that the defendants were required to provide for those expenses. Therefore, we affirm the holding of the Court of Appeals.

Relevant portions of the version of N.C.G.S. § 97-25 applicable at the time the present case arose ¹ provide as follows:

Medical, surgical, hospital, nursing services, medicines, sick travel, rehabilitation services, and other treatment including medical and surgical supplies as may reasonably be required to effect a cure or give relief and for such additional time as in the judgment of the Commission will tend to lessen the period of disability, and in addition thereto such original artificial members as may be reasonably necessary at the end of the healing period shall be provided by the employer. In case of a controversy arising between the employer and employee relative to the continuance of medical, surgical, hospital, or other treatment, the Industrial Commission may order such further treatments as may in the discretion of the Commission be necessary.

The Commission may at any time upon the request of an employee order a change of treatment and designate other treatment suggested by the injured employee subject to the approval of the Commission, and in such a case the expense thereof shall be borne by the employer upon the same terms and conditions as hereinbefore provided in this section for medical and surgical treatment and attendance.

In Little v. Penn Ventilator Co., 317 N.C. 206, 211, 345 S.E.2d 204, 208 (1986), we stated that the legislature intended N.C.G.S. § 97-25 to require that employers provide medical treatments which either will lessen an employee's period of disability, will effect a cure, or will give relief. We also determined that where, as in the present case, an injured employee's condition appeared stable but required monitoring to detect and prevent possible deterioration, medical expenses incurred in monitoring the employee's condition would give "relief" of the type that would require his employer to pay those expenses. Id. at 213-214, 345 S.E.2d at 209-10.

The dissent argues that this Court in Little announced a "change in law." To the contrary, this Court in Little merely interpreted the version of N.C.G.S. § 97-25 which has been in effect since 1973. Until 1973, treatment to "effect a cure or give relief" was limited to a period of ten weeks following the injury; any treatment provided beyond the ten-week period was required to "lessen the period of disability." 1931 N.C.Sess.Laws ch. 274, § 4. In 1973, the legislature broadened an employee's right to recover under this statute by removing the time limitation on an employee's right to treatments which would "effect a cure or give relief." 1973 N.C.Sess.Laws ch. 520, § 1. In Little, this Court simply explained for the first time the obvious effect of the 1973 amendment. The legislature's 1991 amendment of N.C.G.S. § 97-25, which merely moved the "effect a cure or give relief" portion of the statute to the definition of "medical compensation" in the new subsection (19) of N.C.G.S. § 97-2, indicates that, when this Court rendered the Little opinion in 1986, we correctly interpreted the legislature's intent as expressed in the 1973 amendment of the statute. 1991 N.C.Sess.Laws ch. 703, §§ 1, 3.

In the present case, the defendants concede that there is a substantial risk that the plaintiff's prosthetic knee will fail and will have to be replaced and that the plaintiff's condition must be monitored regularly by a physician for this reason. All parties agree that the plaintiff's condition has not materially changed since the Industrial Commission approved the parties' last Form 26 agreement on 14 February 1985 and, thereby, entered its award. The defendants argue that, despite the fact that he otherwise might be entitled under N.C.G.S. § 97-25 to future medical expenses, the plaintiff is not entitled to have the defendants pay such expenses in this instance because N.C.G.S. § 97-47 requires him first to show that his condition has changed materially since the entry of the Industrial Commission's award. We do not agree.

In determining the meaning of statutes, we follow the traditional rules of statutory construction.

Legislative intent controls the meaning of a statute; and in ascertaining this intent, a court must consider the act as a whole, weighing the language of the statute, its spirit, and that which the statute seeks to accomplish. The statute's words should be given their natural and ordinary meaning unless the context requires them to be construed differently.

Shelton v. Morehead Memorial Hospital, 318 N.C. 76, 82, 347 S.E.2d 824, 828 (1986) (citations omitted), quoted in Evans v. AT & T Technologies, 332 N.C. 78, 86, 418 S.E.2d 503, 508-09 (1992). "Statutory interpretation properly begins with an examination of the plain words of the statute." Correll v. Division of Social Services, 332 N.C. 141, 144, 418 S.E.2d 232, 235 (1992) (citing Electric Supply Co. v. Swain Elec. Co., 328 N.C. 651, 656, 403 S.E.2d 291, 294 (1991)). If the language of the statute is clear and is not ambiguous, we must conclude that the legislature intended the statute to be implemented according to the plain meaning of its terms. Id. (citing Lemons v. Boy Scouts of America, Inc., 322 N.C. 271, 276, 367 S.E.2d 655, 688, reh'g denied, 322 N.C. 610, 370 S.E.2d 247 (1988)).

Nothing in the language of N.C.G.S. § 97-25 implies that the "change of condition" requirement of N.C.G.S. § 97-47 applies to any request by an employee for the payment of his medical expenses by his employer. To the contrary, since 1931, N.C.G.S. § 97-25 has mandated that an injured employee's medical care "shall be provided by the employer" and that, "[i]n case of a controversy arising between the employer and employee relative to the continuance of medical, surgical, hospital, or other treatment, the Industrial Commission may order such further treatments as may in the discretion of the...