Durbin v. State Farm Fire and Cas. Co.

558 So. 2d 1257, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 376, 1990 WL 15808
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedFebruary 21, 1990
DocketCA 88 1964
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 558 So. 2d 1257 (Durbin v. State Farm Fire and Cas. Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Durbin v. State Farm Fire and Cas. Co., 558 So. 2d 1257, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 376, 1990 WL 15808 (La. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

558 So.2d 1257 (1990)

Huey DURBIN
v.
STATE FARM FIRE AND CASUALTY COMPANY.

No. CA 88 1964.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

February 21, 1990.

*1258 James Durbin, Denham Springs, for plaintiff.

Teresa C. Leyva, New Orleans, for defendant.

Before EDWARDS, LANIER and FOIL, JJ.

LANIER, Judge.

This action is a suit for worker's compensation benefits, medical expenses and statutory penalties. Suit was filed by Huey Durbin against State Farm Fire and Casualty Company (State Farm), his employer's worker's compensation insurer. The trial court found as fact that (1) Durbin was entitled to a minimum of 175 weeks of benefits for permanent partial disability as a result of a 45% permanent physical impairment to his left knee, (2) Durbin was temporarily totally disabled under the odd lot doctrine, (3) State Farm failed to provide Durbin with adequate rehabilitation services and (4) State Farm was arbitrary, capricious and without probable cause in terminating worker's compensation benefits. The trial court awarded Durbin weekly benefit payments of $210 from the date of injury through the termination of his disability subject to a credit to State Farm of $5,880, for compensation previously paid, and $4,725, for unemployment compensation benefits received by Durbin.[1] The trial court also awarded Durbin all past and future medical expenses, rehabilitation services, a 12% penalty on all due and unpaid compensation benefit payments, and a $5,000 attorney fee. State Farm took this suspensive appeal.

FACTS

Huey Durbin was an employee of Lamonica's Television, Inc. (Lamonica's) in Baton Rouge, East Baton Rouge Parish, Louisiana. He was employed as a television repairman and had worked for Lamonica's since 1971. His job required him to make service calls to customer's homes to repair televisions. If he could not repair the television at the customer's home, he would bring the television to Lamonica's shop. His work required that he move large televisions and do substantial bending, stooping and kneeling. He also had to carry tool and parts boxes weighing 50 lbs. or more.

On October 24, 1985, Durbin was getting up from behind a television set at a customer's home and heard and felt something in his left knee pop. He immediately felt severe pain in his left knee. Durbin returned to Lamonica's shop and reported the accident. He was sent by Lamonica's to Dr. J. Thomas Kilroy, an orthopedic surgeon.

After initially examining Durbin, Dr. Kilroy diagnosed degenerative arthrosis with a superimposed medial sprain of the knee. *1259 He decided to treat the knee conservatively with drugs and elevation. After several weeks without improvement, Dr. Kilroy performed an arthroscope for diagnostic purposes and found that Durbin had a tear of the posterior horn of the medial meniscus, chrondomalacia of the medial femoral condyle, the femoral groove and the lateral facet of the patella. Dr. Kilroy performed a medial meniscectomy, a medial femoral condyloplasty, a femoral groove condyloplasty, a patellaplasty and a lateral release. Two weeks after the operation, Durbin started a rehabilitation program of physical therapy.

EXTENT OF DISABILITY

(Assignments of error numbers 1 and 2)

State Farm contends the trial court erred in finding that Durbin was entitled to a minimum of 175 weeks of benefits for permanent partial disability as a result of a 45% permanent physical impairment to his left knee and in finding that Durbin was temporarily totally disabled under the odd lot doctrine.

At the time of Durbin's accident, temporary total disability was defined in La.R.S. 23:1221(1) as follows:

For injury producing temporary total disability of an employee to engage in any self-employment or gainful occupation for wages whether or not the same or a similar occupation as that in which the employee was customarily engaged when injured and whether or not an occupation for which the employee at the time of injury was particularly fitted by reason of education, training, or experience, sixty-six and two-thirds percent of wages during the period of such disability. (Emphasis added)

Recent judicial interpretations of La.R.S. 23:1221(1) have recognized the applicability of the odd lot doctrine and the working in pain doctrine to temporary total disability cases.[2]Marcotte v. Gulf Builders, Inc., 525 So.2d 208 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 530 So.2d 88 (La.1988); Willie v. Balehi Marine, Inc., 525 So.2d 231 (La.App. 1st Cir.1988); DeGruy v. Pala, Inc., 525 So.2d 1124 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied, 530 So.2d 568 (La.1988).

The Louisiana Supreme Court in Lattin v. Hica Corporation, 395 So.2d 690, 693-694 (La.1981), explained the odd lot doctrine as it applied to permanent and total disability as follows:

Under the odd lot doctrine, a claimant is considered totally disabled if his injury makes him an odd lot in the labor market, that is, one capable of obtaining employment periodically but one whose services are so limited in quality, dependability or quantity that a reasonably stable market for his services does not exist. An odd lot claimant need not be absolutely helpless to qualify for total disability. If the claimant can prove that his physical condition, mental capacity, education, training age or other factors combine to place him at a substantial disadvantage in the competitive labor market, he has made out a prima facie case for classification in the odd lot category. This satisfies his burden of proving that he should be awarded benefits for permanent and total disability. The employer or insurer must then show that some form of gainful occupation is regularly and continuously available to the employee within reasonable proximity to the employee's residence.

The odd lot doctrine is also applicable to substantial pain cases because a worker who, due to his injury, can function only with substantial pain or with the help of fellow workers may not be considered a particularly desirable employee. Thus, if a claimant's pain appreciably limits the types of work available to him and greatly diminishes his ability to compete in the labor market, he can be treated as an odd lot worker and be awarded total disability, unless there is proof that *1260 jobs are realistically available to him. On the other hand, if a worker cannot perform the same work that he did before his injury because it causes him substantial pain, but he has the mental capacity to perform other jobs which are available, he should be considered partially disabled. (Emphasis added; citations omitted)

See also Oster v. Wetzel Printing, Inc., 390 So.2d 1318 (La.1980).

The determination of disability is a factual finding made by the trial court. The totality of the medical and lay evidence must be examined by the court in making the determination of disability. Great weight is given to the trial court's disability determination, and it will not be disturbed absent a finding of manifest error. Dailey v. Royal Insurance Company, 551 So.2d 55 (La.App. 1st Cir.1989).

The only medical testimony of record concerning Durbin's disability is that of Dr. Kilroy. Dr. Kilroy testified that Durbin was admitted to the hospital for testing and surgery on November 19, 1985, and that on December 4, 1985, physical therapy was begun. On February 13, 1986, Dr. Kilroy released Durbin to return to light duty work with the restrictions of no bending, kneeling, stooping or squatting. At that time Dr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
558 So. 2d 1257, 1990 La. App. LEXIS 376, 1990 WL 15808, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/durbin-v-state-farm-fire-and-cas-co-lactapp-1990.