Kennamer Bros., Inc. v. Stewart
| Decision Date | 09 September 2016 |
| Docket Number | 2150359 |
| Citation | 222 So.3d 1186 |
| Parties | KENNAMER BROTHERS, INC. v. Ronney STEWART |
| Court | Alabama Court of Civil Appeals |
J. Lance Smith of Turnbach, Warren, Rice, Lloyd, Frederick & Smith, P.C., Gadsden, for appellant.
Jacob A. Maples of Richardson Maples, PC, Huntsville, for appellee.
Kennamer Brothers, Inc. ("the employer"), timely sought appellate review of a judgment entered by the Marshall Circuit Court awarding Ronney Stewart ("the employee") temporary-total-disability ("TTD") benefits and medical benefits under the Alabama Workers' Compensation Act, Ala. Code 1975, § 25–5–1 et seq. ("the Act"), for, among other things, a rotator-cuff tear suffered by the employee that, the trial court determined, had resulted from an accident arising out of and in the course of the employee's employment.1 We affirm the trial court's compensability determination but reverse as to its calculation of TTD benefits.
In December 2013, the employee brought a civil action against the employer, alleging that, on October 25, 2012, while the employee was in the line and scope of his employment as a truck driver, the vehicle he was operating overturned and crashed on an interstate highway in Tennessee, causing him to "receive[ ] injuries to his head, neck, back, left arm, legs, and body as a whole." In June 2015, the employee amended his complaint to add allegations of an injury to his right arm and right shoulder. The employer denied in its answer, as amended, that the employee's injuries were compensable under the Act. After an ore tenus proceeding, at which the employee testified and the parties submitted evidentiary exhibits, including the transcribed deposition testimony of both lay and expert witnesses, the trial court entered a judgment that, in pertinent part, determined that the employee's right-shoulder condition (i.e. , a rotator-cuff tear ) was a compensable injury that had been caused by the October 25, 2012, work-related incident; that the employee was entitled to maximum TTD benefits dating from December 21, 2012 (when the employer had stopped paying TTD benefits to the employee) to January 28, 2014 (when the employee acquired another job); and that those benefits amounted to $771 per week from December 21, 2012, to July 1, 2013, and $788 per week from July 1, 2013, to January 28, 2014.
Our standard of review is set forth in Ex parte Saad's Healthcare Services, Inc. , 19 So.3d 862 (Ala.2008) :
19 So.3d at 870–71 (citations omitted). We also add that, in reviewing factual determinations, an appellate court "must view the facts in the light most favorable to the findings of the trial court." Ex parte Professional Bus. Owners Ass'n Workers' Comp. Fund , 867 So.2d 1099, 1102 (Ala.2003).
The employer's first issue is whether the trial court erred in determining that the employee's right-shoulder condition was, as a medical matter, caused by his truck crash. In cases involving alleged "accidents," that is, those involving "a sudden and traumatic event" such as the employee's truck crash, "an employee must produce substantial evidence tending to show that the alleged accident occurred and must also establish medical causation by showing that the accident caused or was a contributing cause of the injury." Pair v. Jack's Family Rests., Inc. , 765 So.2d 678, 681 (Ala.Civ.App.2000) (citing Ex parte Trinity Indus., Inc. , 680 So.2d 262, 266 n. 3 (Ala.1996) ). "Whether the employment caused an injury is a question of fact to be resolved by the trial court." Tenax Mfg. Alabama, LLC v. Holt , 979 So.2d 105, 112 (Ala.Civ.App.2007).
The record reflects that the employee, who was 52 years old at the time of trial and has worked almost exclusively as a truck driver for the past 3 decades, was transported from the scene of the crash on Interstate Highway 24 via helicopter to a hospital in Nashville, Tennessee, where he was diagnosed with a concussion and a scalp laceration requiring the insertion of staples and the removal of foreign bodies; he was discharged from the hospital with instructions that he take oxycodone, a prescription pain medication. Approximately one week after his discharge, he reported joint pain and headaches to personnel at an urgent-care clinic in Boaz, which referred him to a neurosurgeon for further evaluation and treatment; that neurosurgeon also prescribed oxycodone for the employee's head wound and referred the employee to a plastic surgeon for further treatment. Over the course of approximately two months, the plastic surgeon treated the employee's head wound, performing multiple glass-removal procedures on the wound, prescribing antibiotic medicines to combat infection, and prescribing hydrocodone for pain.
At trial, the employee testified that he had noticed issues with his right shoulder as he came off the pain medication that he had been prescribed. On March 26, 2013, after completing initial treatment for the head wound, the employee returned to the neurologist, reporting lower back pain radiating to his legs, neck pain, and "whole arm pain," among other symptoms. The neurologist noted that the employee had been taking aspirin with no relief of his pain symptoms. The neurologist assessed the employee's condition as being "[d]iffuse upper and lower extremity symptoms with a significant numbness and tingling component," but, after ordering a magnetic-resonance-imaging ("MRI") procedure, the neurologist determined that the employee was at maximum medical improvement ("MMI") with no impairment.
The employee then requested a panel of four physicians pursuant to Ala. Code 1975, § 25–5–77(a), a portion of the Act pertaining to employer authorization for medical treatment, and selected an orthopedic specialist from that panel; during the employee's first consultation with that orthopedist on August 28, 2013, the employee reported problems with his back, neck, and both arms stemming from the truck crash. The employee testified at trial that he had informed the orthopedist at that consultation that his right arm had been hurting when he had put on a jacket and had removed a tea container from his refrigerator. After the employee underwent a surgical repair stemming from his head injury and completed several weeks of physical therapy with minimal effect, he returned to the orthopedist, who referred the employee for neurological testing that revealed the employee was suffering from a moderate to severe ulnar entrapment in his left arm. Because blocking injections failed to cause the employee's condition to improve, the orthopedist referred the employee to another physician in his practice, who diagnosed the employee with cubital tunnel syndrome and performed a release surgery on the employee's left arm in December 2013. However, the operating physician noted in his records that the employee's right shoulder remained an issue.
After the employee had been assessed as having reached MMI as to his head injury and left-arm condition, he underwent a functional-capacity evaluation; however, the evaluator noted that the employee had complained of sharp pain in his right shoulder, and he declined to provide an impairment rating as to the employee's right shoulder because it had not been fully evaluated. The employee thereafter consulted another orthopedic specialist, Dr. Eric W. Janssen, concerning his right-shoulder pain; Dr. Janssen ordered that the employee undergo an MRI procedure as to his right arm, which revealed a full-thickness tear in his right-shoulder rotator cuff. Dr. Janssen opined at that time that the employee's rotator cuff required an arthroscopic repair. Dr. Janssen's deposition testimony was introduced by the employee at trial; in that deposition, he noted on direct questioning from counsel for the employee that the pain symptoms reported by the employee in March 2013 were consistent with both the employee's self-reported medical history and a rotator-cuff injury, and he...
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