Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. v. Bratton

• Decision Date: 21 July 1995
• Docket Number: WAL-MART
• Citation: 678 So.2d 1071
• Parties: STORES, INC. v. George BRATTON. AV93000850.
• Court: Alabama Court of Civil Appeals

Page 1071

678 So.2d 1071

WAL-MART STORES, INC. v. George BRATTON.

AV93000850.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

July 21, 1995.

Rehearing Denied Sept. 8, 1995.

Certiorari Denied (Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.)

Nov. 22, 1995

Alabama Supreme Court 1941957.

Charles F. Carr, Thomas L. Oliver II and Rhonda Pitts Chambers of Rives & Peterson, P.C., Birmingham, for Appellant.

E.L. Brobston of Brobston & Brobston, P.C., Bessemer, for Appellee.

SAM A. BEATTY, Retired Justice.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., appeals a judgment entered by the trial court awarding permanent and total disability benefits to George Bratton. Bratton had filed an action for workmen's compensation benefits after he suffered a fall at the Wal-Mart store where he worked. We affirm in part, reverse in part, and remand.

In 1976, when Bratton was 59 years old, he suffered a heart attack and retired with a disability pension from his job with Hercules Powder Company in Bessemer, Alabama, where he had worked for approximately 32 years. In 1978, the Social Security Administration determined that Bratton was also eligible for Social Security disability benefits as a result of his heart condition. In 1985, he suffered a stroke that caused weakness to one side of his body.

In 1988, Bratton testified, his wife was working and he was tired of staying home by himself, so he applied for a job with Wal-Mart. He was then 71 years old and walked with a limp because of his stroke. He stated that he told the interviewer that although he had had a heart attack and a stroke, he felt he was stable enough to work. Bratton's employment application with Wal-Mart reflects that he answered "yes" to questions that asked whether he had ever "[b]een forced to give up a job because of health or medical reasons," "[r]eceived a pension for disability," and "[h]ad heart trouble." According to the record, Wal-Mart has an excellent record of hiring elderly and disabled individuals to do sedentary work in its stores. Bratton was hired as a "greeter" by the Wal-Mart store in Bessemer, Alabama, on a part-time basis. The main function of a greeter is to welcome customers as they enter a Wal-Mart store and to offer information and assistance to the customers. Bratton soon began performing other assigned tasks, including caring for plants in the garden shop. After his first year of employment, Bratton began working about 30 hours a week, which is deemed full-time employment by Wal-Mart. He was considered an excellent employee, and Wal-Mart stipulated at trial that it had no problem with his job performance.

On Friday, May 15, 1992, while working in the store's garden shop watering plants, Bratton tripped over the garden hose, fell, and struck the back of his head on the concrete floor. Fellow employees assisted him after the fall, and the accident was reported immediately to Bratton's supervisors. He managed to drive himself home, and he sought medical attention the following Monday. Wal-Mart's company physician hospitalized Bratton for eight days with a diagnosis of closed head trauma, abrasions and contusions to his scalp and head, and contusions to his lower back. The company physician referred Bratton to the neurologist who had treated him following his stroke in 1985, from which the neurologist testified that Bratton had almost completely recovered. Bratton's symptoms after the accident included emotional lability, headaches, neck pain, unsteady gait, and vertigo. In the opinion of the neurologist, only the headaches and neck pain were attributable to Bratton's fall.

At trial, Bratton, his wife, a friend, and a Wal-Mart supervisor compared his physical abilities before the accident with his physical abilities after the accident. According to their testimony, while Bratton was employed by Wal-Mart, he had some physical impairments as the result of his pre-existing medical condition. He walked with a limp, had some weakness, and moved somewhat slowly. They also testified, however, that these physical limitations did not interfere with Bratton's ability to do his job. Following the accident, the testimony reflects, Bratton's weakness was much more pronounced, he was unable to walk without the assistance of a cane, he had a severe memory loss, he suffered from chronic headaches, and he exhibited significant depression.

The vocational specialist who testified for Bratton at trial concluded that, after taking into consideration Bratton's age, vocational experience, and current physical limitations, he was totally and permanently disabled as a result of the accident at Wal-Mart. The vocational specialist who testified for Wal-Mart at trial concluded that Bratton, as a result of his age and physical condition, was already totally disabled before he went to work for Wal-Mart, and that because his total disability continued throughout his employment, the accident at Wal-Mart had no bearing on the question of his subsequent employability. The trial court found "that as a result of his injury [Bratton] has suffered a complete loss of earning capacity as a result of the accident which arose out of and in the course of his employment in that he is totally and permanently disabled as defined under the Workmen's Compensation Act."

Wal-Mart contends that the trial court erred in finding that Bratton was totally and permanently disabled, arguing that an employee who has been previously declared totally and permanently disabled, who has been compensated as a result of his disability, and who subsequently returns to work and is injured, cannot recover total and permanent disability benefits for the subsequent injury under workmen's compensation statutes. This issue is one of first impression in Alabama.

We must first define our standard of review in this case. In 1992, the Alabama Legislature substantially revised the Alabama Workmen's Compensation Act ("the old Act"). See Ala.Acts 1992, Act No. 92-537. The amended Alabama Workers' Compensation Act ("the new Act") became effective May 19, 1992, although some provisions relating to the burden of proof and standard of review did not become effective until August 1, 1992. See §§ 25-5-81(c), (e), Ala.Code 1975 (1992 Repl.Vol.) (the new Act). Bratton's injuries occurred on May 15, 1992; therefore, this case is governed by the old Act, and all statutory citations in this opinion refer to the old Act unless the new Act is explicitly indicated. See Whitsett v. BAMSI, Inc., 652 So.2d 287, 289 (Ala.Civ.App.1994). Under the old Act, our standard of review of the trial court's findings of fact and its judgment based on those findings allows us to look only to see whether there was any legal evidence to support the trial court's findings, and, if so, whether any reasonable view of the evidence supports the trial court's judgment. Ex parte Veazey, 637 So.2d 1348 (Ala.1993); Ex parte Eastwood Foods, Inc., 575 So.2d 91 (Ala.1991). Under either Act, the trial court's conclusions regarding legal issues carry no presumption of correctness on appeal. Ex parte Cash, 624 So.2d 576 (Ala.1993). See also § 25-5-81(e)(1), Ala.Code 1975 (1992 Repl.Vol.) (the new Act).

We now turn to the legal issue presented by this case, i.e., whether Bratton can recover workmen's compensation benefits after having been previously declared disabled by the Social Security Administration. We conclude that he can. Any other result would mean that once an individual became disabled, he or she would be forever precluded from entitlement to benefits for a compensable work-related injury if he or she were able to sufficiently recover from the prior disability to be able to return to work in any capacity. We do not believe that either the Social Security Act or the Alabama workmen's compensation statutes contemplate such a preclusion from benefits, nor do we believe that common sense allows it.

The Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 401 et seq. (1994), clearly contemplates the possibility that a disabled individual may improve and regain his or her ability to work even after having been declared totally and permanently disabled. See, e.g., 42 U.S.C. §§ 416(i)(2)(D), 423(a)(1), 423(f). The Alabama workmen's compensation statutes also contemplate that possibility. See, e.g., § 25-5-57(a)(4)b., (e), (h), (i). Social Security disability benefits and workmen's compensation benefits both seek to ensure that a person who is physically unable to continue to work, whether or not the illness or injury is related to his or her employment, is provided with an income. In the event that both types of benefits are available to an injured worker, Social Security benefits must be offset by the amount of workmen's compensation benefits available in order to prevent a windfall to the individual. See 42 U.S.C. § 424a. Workmen's compensation statutes typically provide for a weekly maximum on benefits available to an injured employee. See §§ 25-5-57(a)(4), 25-5-68, Ala.Code 1975. Neither federal nor state law seeks to provide benefits attractive enough to reward an individual for his physical incapacity or to discourage him from attempting to regain the ability to work if he or she is able to do so.

Professor Larson, in his treatise on workmen's compensation, discusses the payment of benefits to employees who suffer successive or concurrent injuries, as follows:

"There is both a theoretical and a practical reason for the holding that awards for successive or concurrent injuries should not take the form of weekly payments higher than the weekly maxima for total disability. The theoretical reason is that, at a given moment in time, a person can be no more than totally disabled. The practical reason is that if he is allowed to draw weekly benefits simultaneously from a permanent total and a permanent partial award, it may be more profitable for him to be disabled than to be well--a situation which compensation law always studiously avoids in order to prevent inducement to malingering."

2 Arthur Larson, The Law of...