LEAVELLE, MARCUS v. RCT MEMPHIS TN PC

2025 TN WC 17
CourtTennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims
DecidedApril 8, 2025
Docket2022-08-0109
StatusPublished

This text of 2025 TN WC 17 (LEAVELLE, MARCUS v. RCT MEMPHIS TN PC) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
LEAVELLE, MARCUS v. RCT MEMPHIS TN PC, 2025 TN WC 17 (Tenn. Super. Ct. 2025).

Opinion

FILED Apr 08, 2025 01:22 PM(CT) TENNESSEE COURT OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMS

TENNESSEE BUREAU OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION IN THE COURT OF WORKERS’ COMPENSATION CLAIMS AT MEMPHIS

MARCUS LEAVELLE, ) Docket No.: 2022-08-0109 Employee, ) ) v. ) RCT MEMPHIS TN PC, ) State File No.: 90156-2021 Employer, ) ) And ) INDEMNITY INSURANCE ) Judge Shaterra R. Marion COMPANY OF NORTH AMERICA, ) Carrier. )

COMPENSATION HEARING ORDER GRANTING BENEFITS ______________________________________________________________________

The Court held a Compensation Hearing on March 24, 2025, on Mr. Leavelle’s entitlement to medical, temporary, and permanent disability benefits. Mr. Leavelle argued that his injury arose primarily out of and in the course and scope of his employment. RCT argued Mr. Leavelle’s injury was not work related based on the opinion of the authorized treating physician. The Court holds that Mr. Leavelle’s injury arose primarily out of and in the course and scope of his employment and partially grants the requested benefits as detailed below.

History of Claim

On December 1, 2021, Mr. Leavelle injured his left knee when it buckled after he hopped out of a trailer. 1 He saw board-certified osteopath Dr. John Goodfred as his authorized treating physician. Dr. Goodfred examined Mr. Leavelle and took x-rays and an MRI. The exam showed knee swelling and tenderness, and the MRI showed joint effusion. Dr. Goodfred ordered physical therapy for a month.

1 Mr. Leavelle had a history of left-knee injuries but testified it had fully healed before this injury. 1 At a December 23 physical therapy visit, Mr. Leavelle reported to the therapist that his daughter ran into his knee with a hoverboard, causing increased pain and swelling. Mr. Leavelle also saw Dr. Goodfred that day but did not mention either increased pain or the hoverboard incident. Mr. Leavelle testified that he did not specifically remember the hoverboard incident and it was “kind of an insignificant thing.”

On December 23, Dr. Goodfred released Mr. Leavelle at maximum medical improvement, stating he needed additional care and restrictions. However, Dr. Goodfred believed Mr. Leavelle’s ongoing knee problems did not arise primarily out of and in the course and scope of his employment.

Mr. Leavelle testified he could not continue to work at RCT. He stated he used up all his available leave, and then RCT terminated him for not returning to work. He did not give the specific date of his termination.

Dr. Goodfred testified at his deposition that he could not explain the effusion shown on the MRI. He also testified that he did not think Mr. Leavelle’s injury was work-related due to the mechanism of injury and the MRI findings. He stated that “[a]t the point of the MRI, I discerned that [his injury] was not greater than 50 percent” work related. He later explained that it was “reasonable to believe” the hoverboard incident exacerbated or aggravated Mr. Leavelle’s condition. Dr. Goodfred never specifically acknowledged Mr. Leavelle’s ultimate diagnosis, a chondral lesion.

Mr. Leavelle treated on his own with board-certified orthopedic surgeon Dr. David Bernholt. Dr. Bernholt examined him and reviewed the MRI and x-rays, but he did not have a good explanation for the effusion, either. He ordered physical therapy. Dr. Bernholt placed Mr. Leavelle on “sedentary duty only,” but Mr. Leavelle did not testify whether RCT would accommodate sedentary duty or if he tried to work elsewhere.

Dr. Bernholt recommended surgery after conservative treatment failed. He performed an arthroscopy on June 17, 2022, and found a full-thickness chondral lesion. He removed the lesion and repaired the affected area. This resolved the effusion, and Dr. Bernholt placed Mr. Leavelle at maximum medical improvement on November 3 with a 2% impairment rating.

Dr. Bernholt testified by deposition that he found Mr. Leavelle’s knee injury greater than 50% work related. He also testified that his treatment and billing totaling $14,397.24 were reasonable, necessary, and related to the work injury. He explained that sometimes, due to the quality of the MRI, chondral lesions can be missed. Without mentioning the hoverboard incident, he explained that the injury Mr. Leavelle described – stepping off the truck – could have caused the chondral lesion because an awkward step could have generated enough force for his femur to impact his tibia.

2 In November 2022, Mr. Leavelle began working for a new employer. He was initially paid about $18.00 per hour, then $19.25, and now he makes $20.92. He testified that RCT paid him by the mile, and he roughly calculated his hourly wage as $25.25.

Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

At this Compensation Hearing, Mr. Leavelle must prove all elements of his case by a preponderance of the evidence. Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-239(c)(6) (2024). He must show that his chondral lesion arose primarily out of and in the course and scope of his employment. Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-102(12).

Causation

Mr. Leavelle relied on Dr. Bernholt’s opinion, and RCT relied upon Dr. Goodfred’s. Because Mr. Leavelle chose Dr. Goodfred from a panel, his opinion is presumed correct subject to rebuttal by a preponderance of the evidence. § 102(12)(E). With conflicting medical opinions, the Court must determine if Mr. Leavelle rebutted the presumption of correctness attached to Dr. Bernholt’s opinion. After reviewing the evidence, the Court holds he did.

When deciding which medical opinion to accept, the Court can consider the experts’ qualifications, the circumstances of their examinations, the information available to them, and the importance attached to the information by other experts. Smith v. TrustPoint Hosp., LLC, 2021 TN Wrk. Comp. App. Bd. LEXIS 1, at *19-20 (Jan. 6, 2021).

As to qualifications, Dr. Goodfred is a board-certified osteopath with no specialty, while Dr. Bernholt is a board-certified orthopedic surgeon. This factor favors Dr. Bernholt.

The circumstances of their examinations and the information available to them favor Dr. Bernholt as well. Dr. Goodfred saw Mr. Leavelle immediately after the accident, but he only saw him over the course of a month. Dr. Bernholt treated Mr. Leavelle for ten months and ultimately performed a diagnostic surgery that revealed Mr. Leavelle’s condition.

Dr. Bernholt, therefore, amassed a much larger amount of information through the steady progression of treatment, leading him to determine that Mr. Leavelle’s effusion and chondral lesion were work related. The Appeals Board affirmed a trial court’s decision to accept a causation opinion of a physician who “had the benefit of seeing the condition of Employee’s [injured body part] during surgery” and “followed Employee as a patient and saw [his] lack of progress with conservative care firsthand.” Id. at *21.

The ultimate question is whether Mr. Leavelle’s work injury caused his chondral lesion. Dr. Bernholt answered that question; Dr. Goodfred did not. In his deposition, Dr.

3 Goodfred did not acknowledge that Mr. Leavelle was ultimately diagnosed with a chondral lesion and offered no causation opinion. He based his opinion, in part, on the MRI, which Dr. Bernholt’s diagnostic surgery showed to be inaccurate.

Considering the Smith factors, the Court holds Mr. Leavelle has shown by a preponderance of the evidence that Dr. Bernholt’s opinion rebuts the presumption of correctness attached to Dr. Goodfred’s opinion.

RCT also argued that the hoverboard incident constituted an independent, intervening event.

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Related

§ 50-6
Tennessee § 50-6
§ 50-6-102
Tennessee § 50-6-102(12)
§ 50-6-204
Tennessee § 50-6-204(a)(1)(A)
§ 50-6-239
Tennessee § 50-6-239(c)(6)

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Bluebook (online)
2025 TN WC 17, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leavelle-marcus-v-rct-memphis-tn-pc-tennworkcompcl-2025.