Miller v. Western Elec. Co.

• Decision Date: 01 September 1986
• Docket Number: No. 144,144
• Citation: 528 A.2d 486,310 Md. 173
• Parties: Doris M. MILLER v. WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY. ,
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

Page 173

310 Md. 173

528 A.2d 486

Doris M. MILLER v. WESTERN ELECTRIC COMPANY.

No. 144, Sept. Term, 1986.

Court of Appeals of Maryland.

July 29, 1987.

James J. Nolan, Jr. (Brennan & Brennan, on brief), Baltimore, for appellant.

Steven S. Stephens (Joseph B. Harlan and Birrane, Harlan & Sharretts, on brief), Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before MURPHY, C.J., COLE, RODOWSKY, COUCH ^*, McAULIFFE and ADKINS, JJ., and CHARLES E. ORTH, Jr., Associate Judge of the Court of Appeals (Retired) Specially Assigned.

ADKINS, Judge.

Maryland provides worker compensation benefits when an employee "suffers from an occupational disease, and is thereby disabled from performing his work in the last occupation in which he was injuriously exposed to the hazards of such disease...." Md. Code Ann. (1957, 1985 Repl.Vol.) Art. 101, § 22(a). For purposes of this occupational disease provision, " '[D]isablement ' ... means the event of an employee's becoming actually incapacitated, either partly or totally, because of an occupational disease ...; and 'disability ' means the state of being so incapacitated." Art. 101, § 67 (15) [emphasis in original].

In Adams v. Western Elec. Co., 63 Md.App. 587, 593, 493 A.2d 392, 395, cert. denied, 304 Md. 301, 498 A.2d 1186 (1985), the Court of Special Appeals had before it our interpretation of these provisions in Belschner v. Anchor Post Products Co., 227 Md. 89, 175 A.2d 419 (1961). It said:

If, indeed, the [occupational disease] claimant is able to continue to perform reasonably analogous work within the same occupational classification at the same or higher wages, he is not incapacitated "from performing his work in the last occupation." That is the meaning we derive from Belschner and from the statute itself [emphasis in part supplied].

In the case before us, the Court of Special Appeals, relying on its Adams, took the same view of Belschner. Reversing the Circuit Court for Baltimore City, it denied appellant, Doris M. Miller, permanent partial occupational disease disability benefits principally because there was no showing that the disease had produced a diminution in her earnings. Because we believe Belschner does not make actual wage loss a prerequisite for the recovery of benefits in an occupational disease case, we reverse.

I

Miller was employed by the appellee, Western Electric Company, from 1970 until 1985 when she was laid off because of a plant closing. Her position was that of a solderer, though over the years she temporarily assumed the positions of process checker, assembler and machine operator. During the course of her employment as a solderer, she developed an occupational disease, carpal tunnel syndrome, that afflicted her hands and wrists. This condition necessitated medical attention, and in late 1980, surgery to both wrists. Following a period of temporary total disability, Miller returned to work in January 1981 and assumed light duties for three months, after which she returned to her solderer position. The surgery apparently was not completely successful as Miller continued to suffer pain and limited mobility in her left hand and wrist. This condition caused staff physicians at Western Electric to place Miller on several temporary work restrictions, and in January 1985, she was placed on a permanent work restriction. At that time she also assumed the position of machine operator apparently due to the abolition of her solderer position.

Later in 1985, Miller filed a claim for permanent partial disability benefits with the Workmen's Compensation Commission. After a hearing, the Commission determined that Miller had sustained a 20 percent permanent partial disability of the left hand as a result of an occupational disease and awarded compensation. Western Electric appealed this determination to the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. In a jury trial, the Honorable Marvin B. Steinberg presiding Miller testified that when she resumed her solderer position, she performed the job in the same manner as she had previously, but was unable to work as fast as before the surgery or to make the company "rate" because she was plagued with stiffness and pain. ¹ She also testified as to a diminished ability to handle tools or do household chores. It is undisputed that from the time of her surgery until layoff, Miller did not experience a diminution in wages. During that time she received regularly scheduled wage increases and overtime pay. Miller testified that at Western Electric workers were eligible for overtime work if they made 75 percent of the company "rate."

Testimony was also offered by Patricia Karczewski, a Western Electric benefits investigator. She testified as to Miller's wages and work restrictions, and also explained that a worker's failure to make the company rate normally resulted in a disciplinary "write-up," and Miller's personnel file did not contain notations as to any such action.

At the conclusion of the evidence, Western Electric's motion for judgment was denied. The trial court then instructed the jury in pertinent part as follows:

Under the Maryland Workmen's Compensation law where an employee suffers from an occupational disease and is thereby disabled from performing her work in the last occupation in which she was injuriously exposed to the hazards of that disease, and the disease was due to the nature of the occupation or process in which she was employed within that period previous to her disablement, then the employee will be entitled to compensation under the Workmen's Compensation law of Maryland.

An occupational disease is defined in our statute. It's defined in this way. An occupational disease means the event of an employee becoming actually incapacitated either temporarily, partially or totally because of a disease contracted as a result of and in the course of employment in the manner I have just described to you.

The word disablement is also defined under the Maryland law. Disablement means the event of an employee becoming actually incapacitated either partly or totally because of an occupational disease from performing her work in the last occupation in which she was exposed to the hazards of that disease, and disability means the state of being so incapacitated.

* * *

* * *

Now, in determining whether or not Mrs. Miller lacked the ability to continue to perform her work partly--there is no question that the word totally is not applicable here. It's only partly. In determining whether or not she lacked the ability to continue to perform her work partly you may take into consideration those factors--that she had to work slower, that she worked overtime hours, that she earned more dollars as a result of the overtime hours--and you may take into consideration those factors in determining whether in your opinion you find as a fact that she was either not able or able to continue to perform her work partly.

Western Electric, citing Belschner, excepted to the refusal of the trial court to instruct the jury that

If you find from the evidence that the Claimant was able to continue to perform her work in a satisfactory manner without loss of wages in the same occupation she had performed before the onset of the occupational disease, you must find that the Claimant suffered no permanent disability in this case.

After deliberations, the jury returned with a verdict, finding that Miller suffered a 20 percent permanent partial disability of her left hand as a result of her occupational disease. After entry of judgment on that verdict, and denial of its motion n.o.v., Western Electric appealed to the Court of Special Appeals. It argued that under Belschner it was entitled to judgment as a matter of law, or to instructions that would have required the jury to find in its favor if the jury determined that Miller was able to continue performing her work in a satisfactory manner without loss of wages. As we have seen, that court found its interpretation of Belschner controlling. Because Miller had continued to perform her job in satisfactory manner without loss of wages, it concluded she was not entitled to compensation and reversed. We granted certiorari.

II

Miller argues that our decision in Belschner has been erroneously interpreted as creating an irrebuttable presumption that an employee suffering from an occupational disease who returns to work at the same or higher wage level is not compensably disabled, see, e.g., Adams, supra. Moreover, she asserts that a litmus wage-loss test in occupational disease cases contravenes the letter and spirit of the workers' compensation statute. These arguments compel a thorough re-examination of our Belschner decision and the occupational disease provisions of the statute. We begin that re-examination by placing the statutes examined in Belschner within an appropriate framework. We are dealing with statutory construction, and our basic task is to determine what goals or objectives the legislature was attempting to achieve when it enacted those laws. That determination must be made by considering the statutes in their proper context. Kaczorowski v. Mayor and City Council of Baltimore, et al., 309 Md. 505, 525 A.2d 628 (1987).

When comprehensive worker compensation first came to Maryland in 1914, the law provided for compensation only for accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employment. ² There was no statutory provision covering compensation for the effects of occupational disease. Belschner, 227 Md. at 92, 175 A.2d at 420. ³ Moreover, in an accidental injury case, a claimant was not required to show actual loss of wages in order to recover. In the case of permanent partial disability produced by accidental injury, benefits were determined (in the case of a scheduled injury) by a formula involving a percentage of the claimant's average weekly wage and a specified number of weeks. Md. Code Ann. (1914) Art. 101, § 36.3. In "other cases" of permanent partial disability, § 36.3...