Wausau Insurance Co. v. Dorsett

• Decision Date: 19 August 2005
• Citation: 172 S.W.3d 538
• Parties: WAUSAU INSURANCE COMPANY v. Vivian Alvina DORSETT.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

172 S.W.3d 538

WAUSAU INSURANCE COMPANY v. Vivian Alvina DORSETT.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Nashville.

June 8, 2005 Session.

August 19, 2005.

John E. Anderson and John Paul Nefflen, Nashville, Tennessee, for the Appellant, Wausau Insurance Company.

Eric J. Burch, Manchester, Tennessee, for the Appellee, Vivian Alvina Dorsett.

OPINION

FRANK F. DROWOTA, III, C. J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which E. RILEY ANDERSON, ADOLPHO A. BIRCH, JR., JANICE M. HOLDER, and WILLIAM M. BARKER, JJ., joined.

We granted this interlocutory appeal to determine whether the trial court erred in awarding the employee temporary total disability benefits in excess of 400 weeks where the employee had not attained maximum medical improvement within the 400-week period. We hold that the statutory "maximum total benefit" of 400 weeks applies to temporary total disability benefits. Therefore, we reverse the judgment of the trial court and hold that the employer's liability for temporary total disability benefits is statutorily limited to 400 weeks. We remand this case to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with this opinion.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

This workers' compensation action was originally filed on June 29, 2000, by Wausau Insurance Company ("Wausau") pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated section 50-6-225 (1999 & Supp.2004). The defendant-appellee, Vivian Alvina Dorsett ("Dorsett") had claimed workers compensation benefits, alleging that on May 29, 1997, while she was working for Rawlings Sporting Goods Incorporated at its leather-tanning facility in Tullahoma, she was bitten on the back of her left wrist by a brown recluse spider.¹ Dorsett alleges that her shift began at 4:00 p.m. that day. After cleaning her work space she noticed, at approximately 8:00 p.m., a spot on the back of her left wrist, smaller than the size of a penny, which appeared to be a mosquito bite. Dorsett claimed that by the next day the affected area had spread to the size of a quarter, the skin had broken, and the center of the area appeared black. Dorsett alleged that midway through her shift on May 30, 1997, she began experiencing severe nausea and chills. By the next day, red "streaking" had appeared near the affected area, and ulcers or sores had appeared near the streaking. Dorsett was treated by Dr. Stephen Bills who opined that she had been bitten by a spider and prescribed an antibiotic.

After undergoing various treatments, including antibiotic medications and skin grafts, all of which failed to eliminate the red streaking and ulcers on her left arm, Dorsett was referred to Dr. Lloyd E. King. Dr. King, a board-certified dermatologist who had served as the chief of dermatology at Vanderbilt University Medical Center since 1977, was deposed on June 5, 2001. Dr. King explained that he had conducted extensive research of brown recluse spider bites, had written at least fifteen articles on the subject, and had "been widely quoted in the area of brown recluse spider bites and complications." Dr. King opined that the history Dorsett had given was consistent with her having been bitten by a brown recluse spider. Dr. King diagnosed Dorsett with pyoderma gangrenosum, a condition Dr. King described as "chronic pus in the skin with ulcers in which you can't find the germs by standard tests. So it's considered microbiologically sterile. `Sterile' meaning you can't culture out any germs." Although he could not state to a reasonable degree of medical certainty that Dorsett's pyoderma gangrenosum had been caused by the brown recluse spider bite, Dr. King explained that it is not uncommon for the condition to develop in patients who had been bitten by a brown recluse spider. Dr. King opined that Dorsett had not attained maximum medical improvement, even though she had been treated with "all the known therapies for pyoderma gangrenosum." However, Dr. King remained "hopeful" that Dorsett would improve because, two weeks earlier, he had started Dorsett on a new treatment, which had then only recently been approved by the Federal Drug Administration.

Unfortunately, Dorsett's condition did not improve as Dr. King had hoped. Subsequently, at the request of Wausau, Dorsett was referred for a second opinion to the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, because of its expertise in evaluating patients with chronic ulcers and pyoderma gangrenosum. Dr. Arnold Schroeter, who had served as chairperson of dermatology at the Mayo Clinic, evaluated Dorsett. Dr. Schroeter determined that Dorsett has a genetic enzyme deficiency, a condition known as methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase. This deficiency results in abnormal coagulation and thrombophilia² and is known "for its role in strokes and heart attacks." As treatment for this condition, Dr. Schroeter recommended that Dorsett take folic acid to compensate for the enzyme deficiency and coumadin, or another comparable anticoagulant drug, to prevent clotting.

Dr. King implemented the recommended treatment regimen, and when he was deposed again on October 8, 2004, Dr. King confirmed that Dorsett had responded well to the new treatment, with the most significant improvements in her condition occurring during the preceding three months. Dr. King diagnosed Dorsett with "chronic ulceration of the left forearm secondary to a brown recluse bite in the context of someone who has a genetic deficiency of an enzyme called methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase." He explained that, despite the treatment, Dorsett has continued to experience migraine headaches, allergies and sensitivity to various chemicals, chronic pain syndrome, ulcerations on her left arm, a large ventral hernia on which surgeons had refused to operate because of her history of clotting, and weight gain and fluid retention resulting from her inability to perform daily living activities. When asked to estimate the permanency of Dorsett's injuries, Dr. King replied "I have no specific timetable. It—she is currently, I think, improving, but we have had her improved before. So I cannot give a definite timetable of when she would be `well.'" Dr. King was "not hopeful" that Dorsett would be able to return to work. Dr. King acknowledged, however, that he had not assigned Dorsett any permanent restrictions because she had not attained maximum medical improvement.

Six days after Dr. King was deposed, Wausau filed a motion to continue the trial, which had been scheduled for December 13, 2004. Relying upon Dr. King's deposition, Wausau alleged that Dorsett had not attained maximum medical improvement. Wausau requested a continuance of the trial until Dorsett had reached maximum medical improvement.

In her response to Wausau's motion, Dorsett maintained that the trial court should proceed to trial and find her permanently and totally disabled, despite her not having attained maximum medical improvement. Alternatively, Dorsett asked the trial court to direct Wausau to continue paying her temporary total disability benefits until she reached maximum medical improvement. On February 3, 1998, the Tennessee Department of Labor, Workers' Compensation Division ordered Wausau to pay temporary total disability benefits to Dorsett, and Wausau has paid temporary total disability benefits since that time.³ In her response to the motion to continue, Dorsett acknowledged that "[u]nder the Tennessee Workers Compensation Statutes, an employee is entitled to four hundred (400) weeks of compensation unless the employee is deemed permanently and totally disabled," but Dorsett nonetheless asserted that the trial court should order Wausau to continue paying her temporary total disability benefits "irrespective of the four hundred (400) week cap" because the workers' compensation statutes are intended to provide compensation for employees who are disabled as a result of a work-related accident. Dorsett pointed out that terminating her temporary total disability benefits after 400 weeks would leave her "without income while she awaits maximum medical improvement, which may not be for some time, if ever." Finally, Dorsett asked the trial court to grant an interlocutory appeal on the issue of whether temporary total disability benefits may be extended beyond 400 weeks when an employee fails to attain maximum medical improvement during the 400-week period.

The trial court granted Wausau's motion to continue the trial, but also ordered Wausau to pay temporary total disability benefits until Dorsett attains maximum medical improvement, even if the payment period exceeded 400 weeks. The trial court granted Wausau permission to seek an interlocutory appeal from its order. The trial court also granted Dorsett permission to seek an interlocutory appeal "to interpret the issue of first impression of whether [Dorsett] is entitled to temporary total disability benefits beyond the four hundred week point."⁴

We granted Wausau's and Dorsett's applications for interlocutory appeal. We now reverse the trial court and hold that temporary total disability benefits are statutorily limited to 400 weeks.

II. Standard of Review

Whether the trial court erred in awarding Dorsett temporary total disability benefits in excess of 400 weeks is a legal issue, involving statutory interpretation, which we review de novo with no presumption of correctness afforded to the trial court's conclusions. Gray v. Cullom Machine, Tool & Die, 152 S.W.3d 439, 443 (Tenn.2004); Kyle v. Williams, 98 S.W.3d 661, 663-64 (Tenn.2003); Ki v. State, 78 S.W.3d 876, 879 (Tenn.2002).

III. Statutory Construction

We start from the premise that "`[w]hile the Workers' Compensation Act is to be liberally construed for the employee's benefit, that policy does not authorize the amendment, alteration or extension of its provisions beyond its obvious meaning.'" Wilkins v. Kellogg Co., 48 S.W.3d 148, 152 (Tenn.2001) (quoting Pollard v. Knox County, 886 S.W.2d 759, 760 (Tenn.1994)). "This premise is simply a specific...