Matthews, Savitri v. Family Dollar Stores of Tennessee, LLC

2023 TN WC 31
CourtTennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims
DecidedApril 25, 2023
Docket2021-06-1175
StatusPublished

This text of 2023 TN WC 31 (Matthews, Savitri v. Family Dollar Stores of Tennessee, LLC) 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
Matthews, Savitri v. Family Dollar Stores of Tennessee, LLC, 2023 TN WC 31 (Tenn. Super. Ct. 2023).

Opinion

FILED Apr 25, 2023 07:00 AM(CT) TENNESSEE COURT OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION CLAIMS

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

Savitri Matthews, ) Docket No. 2021-06-1175 Employee, ) v. ) Family Dollar Stores of Tennessee, ) LLC, ) State File No. 118458-2019 Employer, ) And ) Safety Nat’l Cas. Co., ) Carrier. ) Judge Kenneth M. Switzer

COMPENSATION ORDER

Savitri Matthews has endured many hardships in her life. Ms. Matthews believes this case is about just one of them; Family Dollar Stores of Tennessee says it is about them all.

Ms. Matthews suffered post-traumatic stress disorder after an armed robbery at her former workplace, Family Dollar. The parties agree that the robbery, and harassment from the gunman that she was subjected to afterward, caused a compensable mental injury under the Worker’s Compensation Law. But they dispute her resulting impairment and eligibility for increased permanent partial disability benefits. For the reasons below, the Court holds Ms. Matthews’s impairment rating is ten percent and she is entitled to increased benefits.

Claim History

Lay testimony

Ms. Matthews worked as the store manager for Family Dollar. On October 16, 2019, she was working with two other team members who were out on the floor while she was at the register. They were preparing to close around 9:45 p.m., when a man, dressed in red with his face covered and carrying a gun, entered the store and said, “You know

1 what this is.” He heard her coworkers and realized she was not alone, so he cocked the weapon. She gave him the money, and he left.

Ms. Matthews immediately closed the store, contacted her manager, and called the police. After giving her statement, she went home. That same night, Ms. Matthews was “in shock.” She began having frequent nightmares about the incident, including hearing a gun being cocked and sometimes firing.

After one day off, Ms. Matthews had to return to work. She did so for about a month. During that time, the gunman returned to the store several times to “taunt” her. Ms. Matthews recalled one instance when he drove up next to her behind the store while she was taking out the trash. He rolled down the window and said, “I should have shot you.” Another time, she noticed his car following hers after she left work. She saw a police officer on patrol. For a few days, the police parked near her street to ensure her safety.

During that month, Ms. Matthews was “jumpy” at work. For example, she would yell at customers to “take your hands out of your pockets,” and she was fearful of men in hoodies. Ultimately, Family Dollar placed her on “medical leave.” Ms. Matthews saw a counselor of Family Dollar’s choosing. The counselor restricted her from working and later recommended psychiatric treatment.

Family Dollar then directed her to treat with psychiatrist Dr. Greg Kyser, who offered medication and psychotherapy and kept her off work. Ms. Matthews saw him every two weeks initially, but the frequency lessened as she improved. Altogether she saw him thirteen times including the date of maximum medical improvement, April 20, 2021. She now sees him every three months. Dr. Kyser assigned a ten-percent impairment rating and restricted her from working retail or in positions that require interfacing with the public.

Family Dollar requested an employer’s examination seeking another opinion on her impairment. Ms. Matthews saw Dr. Stephen Montgomery in June 2021, who concluded she suffered a 2.5 percent impairment.

The conflicting ratings prompted an evaluation through the Medical Impairment Rating Registry. The parties chose Dr. Melvin Goldin, who saw her in May 2022 and concluded she retained a ten-percent impairment rating.

At trial, both on direct examination and cross, the testimony described the robbery and its impact on Ms. Matthews’s life, as well as other stressful events. Among them, Ms. Matthews was diagnosed with cancer in 2014, which treatment required radiation and extensive recovery time. In 2018, she learned that her brother had molested her teenage daughter. Ms. Matthews and her daughter survived a March 2020 tornado, which destroyed their home; they were inside it at the time and awoke to portions of the roof

2 completely blown off. Then in October 2020, Ms. Matthews’s twenty-year-old son died unexpectedly after an asthma attack. She was also involved in a serious car accident that month, suffering a stroke and spending a week in the intensive care unit.

Ms. Matthews did not seek mental-health counseling for any of these events, other than attending two grief counseling sessions after her son’s death.1 She acknowledged that the doctors’ records said she did, but she maintained they were mistaken. Dr. Kyser prescribed medications, but the only other time she took antidepressants was for four months, before and after the birth of her daughter many years ago. She could not recall taking them for two months immediately after the cancer diagnosis. Ms. Matthews also denied being in a “deep, dark place” during her cancer treatment from 2014 to 2019, as stated in a Facebook post. She explained the post was merely offering “encouraging words” to others who might need help for their mental health.

As to what made the robbery and its aftermath stand out, among so many other misfortunes, Ms. Matthews explained that nature caused the tornado, and nothing could have prevented it. As for her son’s death, she learned after the fact that he had seen doctors several times beforehand. His passing left her “angry” and “hurt.”

In contrast, the robber made an intentional decision to hurt her. She explained:

That is something a human chose to do. He had control to say no. He had control to not do it. And then he thought, ‘Hey, I got away with it. So I’m going to taunt her; I’m going to follow her home.’ That’s what a human— something that is preventable. And it is the outcome of a decision that that person—that criminal—made. Because he’s a criminal. And I keep up with him. I keep up with his arrest record. He’s been arrested twenty-one times for armed robbery since then. And that’s what makes this different.

Ms. Matthews testified that the robbery has left her extremely fearful. She moved from North Nashville to Gallatin because the new home is gated for security. Ms. Matthews does not leave home for outings such as shopping except when accompanied by her father, with whom she lives, or another family member. She is fearful of large groups of people.

Ms. Matthews began a master’s degree program, but she abandoned it after only a few months, despite describing learning as her “happy place.” Her bachelor’s degree is in public health, and she used to be involved in the community. But now she says she cannot work in that field. 1 In 1998, Ms. Matthews was in a physically-abusive romantic relationship. She was sued by her former boyfriend’s parents after they broke up, which lawsuit was later dismissed. Ms. Matthews testified that this did not cause her to seek treatment. The Court credits her testimony that this event, very remote in time, did not significantly affect her mental health and is not relevant to the current dispute.

3 As to her employment, post-injury, Ms. Matthews never returned to Family Dollar after being placed at maximum medical improvement. She had been earning an annual salary of $51,500, for work-weeks ranging from fifty to seventy hours, and she did not receive overtime pay.

Instead, Ms. Matthews returned to work in January 2022 for HCA. Her position in human resources allowed her to work entirely from home. On March 1, 2022, she was earning $22 per hour. Two paystubs confirmed that rate and showed she earned overtime, although Ms.

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2023 TN WC 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matthews-savitri-v-family-dollar-stores-of-tennessee-llc-tennworkcompcl-2023.