Boyd v. MISSISSIPPI WORKERS'COMPENSATION

919 So. 2d 163, 2005 WL 1384345
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedJune 7, 2005
Docket2004-WC-00614-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 919 So. 2d 163 (Boyd v. MISSISSIPPI WORKERS'COMPENSATION) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Mississippi primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boyd v. MISSISSIPPI WORKERS'COMPENSATION, 919 So. 2d 163, 2005 WL 1384345 (Mich. Ct. App. 2005).

Opinion

919 So.2d 163 (2005)

Ada L. BOYD, Appellant,
v.
MISSISSIPPI WORKERS' COMPENSATION Commission Self-Insurer Guaranty Association, Appellee.

No. 2004-WC-00614-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

June 7, 2005.

*164 Frank H. Shaw, Jr., Kosciusko, attorney for appellant.

Virginia S. Gautier, Jackson, attorney for appellee.

EN BANC.

MYERS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. On September 14, 1995, Ada L. Boyd was injured while working for Baldwin Piano and Organ Company. She was compensated for temporary total disability due to this on-the-job injury. Some time after the benefits for temporary total disability ceased, Boyd sought additional benefits, arguing that she suffered permanent partial disability and a resulting loss of wage earning capacity due to the September 14, 1995 injury. After various cancelled hearings and continuances, a hearing with the administrative law judge was finally held on April 12, 2000, and on October 23, 2000, the administrative law judge denied Boyd's claim for benefits. Boyd appealed, and on March 27, 2001, the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission affirmed the decision of the administrative law judge. On April 19, 2001, Boyd appealed the Commission's decision to the Circuit Court of Leflore County, and on February 19, 2004, the circuit court affirmed the decision of the Commission.

¶ 2. Aggrieved by the judgment of the circuit court, Boyd now appeals, raising the following two issues, which we quote verbatim:

I. WHETHER OR NOT AN INJURED CLAIMANT REMAINS TEMPORARILY AND TOTALLY DISABLED UNTIL ACTUALLY NOTIFIED OF THE TREATING PHYSICIAN'S RELEASE TO RETURN TO WORK SENT DIRECTLY TO THE EMPLOYER.
II. WHETHER OR NOT THE FINDING OF THE MISSISSIPPI WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION THAT CLAIMANT FAILED TO PROVE A PRIMA FACIE CASE FOR LOSS OF WAGE EARNING CAPACITY IS SUPPORTED BY SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.

¶ 3. Finding no reversible error, we affirm the judgment of the circuit court.

FACTS

¶ 4. Ada L. Boyd had worked for the Baldwin Piano and Organ Company in Greenwood, Mississippi, since 1976. After *165 roughly twenty years of employment with Baldwin, Boyd was terminated around the end of May 1996 for failure to report to work. The circumstances surrounding this termination set up the facts of this case.

¶ 5. On September 14, 1995, while sanding some wood that was to be incorporated into a piano, Boyd accidentally backed into the sander. Her shirt was caught in the sander, she was pulled up against the machine, and she fell to the floor after her shirt was torn off by the sander. This caused her to suffer injuries to her right side, back, and arm, for which she began to receive treatment that very day. Boyd's medical expenses were paid, and Boyd was paid workers' compensation benefits of $176.27 per week for temporary total disability from September 14, 1995 to May 23, 1996. The date of her maximum medical improvement was determined by her treating physician, Dr. Dowen Snyder, to be May 23, 1996.

¶ 6. After Dr. Snyder made this determination, he notified Baldwin that Boyd was released to return to work. However, Boyd did not contact Baldwin about returning to work, nor did she make any attempt to return to work within three days, as required by company policy. After six days of not hearing from Boyd, Baldwin terminated her employment, giving as the reason for termination that Boyd failed to return to work or contact Baldwin within three days of being released to return to work.

¶ 7. In her first petition to controvert, filed March 21, 1997, Boyd alleges that she suffered permanent disability and resulting loss of wage earning capacity due to the September 14, 1995 injury. Baldwin answered, denying that Boyd suffered any permanent disability and loss of wage earning capacity. A short time later, on March 26, 1997, Boyd's original attorney was allowed to withdraw. On December 8, 1997, Boyd's second attorney was allowed to withdraw. After some time had passed, on January 27, 1998, Boyd's claim was dismissed for failure to prosecute. Roughly a year later, on January 14, 1999, Boyd's claim was reinstated after she secured another attorney. As a part of obtaining this reinstatement of her claim, Boyd filed a second petition to controvert, containing some different information than the first petition to controvert. Baldwin again answered, denying that Boyd suffered permanent disability and loss of wage earning capacity.

¶ 8. As should be obvious from the dates listed in the discussion above and the date of this appeal, almost ten years have passed since the original injury and this present appeal. During the time in which Boyd received benefits for temporary disability, she received ongoing treatment from Dr. Millard Costilow, Dr. Snyder, and Dr. Lynn Stringer. After Dr. Snyder determined that Boyd had reached maximum medical improvement and after Boyd's subsequent termination, she continued to complain of various ongoing symptoms and problems. Boyd worked for a brief time as a sitter for an elderly couple, she made a single inquiry about employment at Wal-Mart, and she did some substitute teaching; but beyond these things, Boyd made no other attempts at securing employment during the five years in between her injury and the decision of the Commission. Boyd cited an inability to work which was due to permanent disability, and that permanent disability was alleged to have been caused by her injury at work on September 14, 1995.

¶ 9. Yet, every doctor who treated Boyd opined that there was no physical evidence to back up or substantiate her complaints about her level of constant pain and that the nature and extent of her complaints regarding pain and the like were out of *166 proportion to what all of her diagnostic tests revealed. One doctor declared that Boyd's problem was more psychological than physical, and not a single doctor opined that her alleged ongoing problems were causally related to her September 14, 1995 injury. This same doctor also opined that, in light of the largely psychological nature of Boyd's continuing complaints, Boyd should be encouraged to return to some kind of work, instead of being allowed to continue idly ruminating upon the extent of the pain she felt (a pain which, according to Boyd, was constant, extreme, and unresponsive to treatments including steroid injections and various pain medications).

¶ 10. Ultimately, in making its decision, the Commission accepted the administrative judge's findings that all of the doctors opined that Boyd was not permanently disabled and that Boyd made no reasonable attempt to secure employment as required to established a prima facie case of permanent disability and resulting loss of wage earning capacity.

LEGAL ANALYSIS

I. WHETHER OR NOT AN INJURED CLAIMANT REMAINS TEMPORARILY AND TOTALLY DISABLED UNTIL ACTUALLY NOTIFIED OF THE TREATING PHYSICIAN'S RELEASE TO RETURN TO WORK SENT DIRECTLY TO THE EMPLOYER.

¶ 11. Boyd argues that she did not receive notice that she was released to return to work until after she had been terminated. She also argues that we should construe our law to hold that an injured claimant remains temporarily and totally disabled until receiving actual notice that he or she is released to return to work.

¶ 12. The Commission argues that it strains credibility to think Boyd was completely unaware that her physician had released her to return to work, and that in any event, the Commission's decision was supported by substantial evidence.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 13.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Imperial Palace Casino v. Wilson
960 So. 2d 549 (Court of Appeals of Mississippi, 2006)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
919 So. 2d 163, 2005 WL 1384345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boyd-v-mississippi-workerscompensation-missctapp-2005.