Mosley, Amanda v. HG Staffing, LLC

2021 TN WC 169
CourtTennessee Court of Workers' Compensation Claims
DecidedApril 7, 2021
Docket2019-04-0064
StatusPublished

This text of 2021 TN WC 169 (Mosley, Amanda v. HG Staffing, 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
Mosley, Amanda v. HG Staffing, LLC, 2021 TN WC 169 (Tenn. Super. Ct. 2021).

Opinion

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

AT COOKEVILLE

AMANDA MOSLEY, ) Docket No 2019-04-0064 Employee, )

Vv. )

HG STAFFING, LLC, ) State File No. 7907-2019 Employer, )

And )

CAROLINA CAS. INS. CO., ) Judge Robert Durham Carrier. )

EXPEDITED HEARING ORDER GRANTING MEDICAL BENEFITS

This case came before the Court on March 29, 2021, for a second Expedited Hearing. Ms. Mosley seeks additional medical and temporary disability benefits for right wrist and hand complaints due to her employment with HG Staffing. HG Staffing asserts that she has not shown that her current symptoms arise primarily out of employment with it, but rather they were caused later employment. Both parties relied on conflicting doctors’ opinions. After considering their opinions and Ms. Mosley’s testimony, the Court holds that Ms. Mosley is likely to prevail at trial regarding medical benefits but has not shown entitlement to temporary disability benefits.

History of Claim

Earlier this year, the Court entered an Expedited Hearing Order that held Ms. Mosley was likely to prove she sustained a work-related injury on January 10, 2019, to her right hand and wrist while working for HG Staffing, a temporary employment agency. The Court ordered HG Staffing to pay temporary partial disability benefits from April 8 through June 20, 2019, but it denied Ms. Mosley’s request for additional temporary disability benefits and medical treatment with her unauthorized doctor, Roy

Terry. !

‘For this hearing, the parties stipulated to the Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law contained in that Order, and they are incorporated by reference. Afterward, Ms. Mosley filed another Petition for Benefit Determination seeking the benefits she did not receive at the first hearing. At the second hearing, she elaborated on her injury.

She testified that she initially injured her right arm on January 1, 2019, in the presence of her supervisor, “J.R.”* During a conversation with him, she accidentally hit a button on her machine, a drive shaft fell out of it, and it struck her right arm when she attempted to catch it.

Later that day, she told J.R. that her arm hurt. He modified her duties but advised against giving formal notice of an injury because she could lose her job. Ms. Mosley believed she had been “doing great” at work and was on the verge of being offered a full- time position. So she did not report the injury at first. However, Ms. Mosley’s symptoms persisted, and a safety coordinator who noticed her wearing a brace insisted she file an accident report, which she did on January 25.

HG Staffing’s client, Dana, informed HG staffing on January 28 that it no longer needed Ms. Mosley’s services due to “performance.” HG Staffing did not provide any evidence regarding her alleged performance deficiency.

After the placement at Dana ended, Ms. Mosley testified that she asked HG Staffing for a new position, but it did not offer one.’ So, she took employment at a nursing home, despite still suffering from hand pain. She worked there for a few weeks, but the job required significant right-hand use, and the pain forced her to quit. Ms. Mosley hasn’t worked since.

Regarding her physical condition, Ms. Mosely testified that she continues to be extremely limited in using her right hand given the pain and weakness she suffers in it. For example, she said that she dropped a bottle of cleaning fluid while attempting to clean her floor and was sprayed in her eye. She does not believe that she can find employment with her current symptoms, but she wishes to return to work.

As for her medical care, the Court outlined the medical proof in the first Expedited Hearing Order. In summary, the authorized physician, James Rubright, believed that Ms. Mosley suffered from De Quervain’s tenosynovitis due to her January injury, but that her

* On cross-examination, Ms. Mosley admitted that in her previous testimony, she stated the injury occurred on January 10 and conceded that it was unlikely she worked on New Year’s Day. She said she could not remember the exact day of the injury, but it occurred several weeks before she filed an official report.

* At the first hearing, Denise Givens, CEO of HG Staffing, testified that she was unaware of any efforts Ms. Mosley made to reapply with her company, but she stated it would have been able to accommodate any physical restrictions on her work activities. symptoms had resolved before working at the nursing home. He continued that he did not know if he could “clearly assign causation to her previous work,” given that her symptoms had “essentially resolved” until she worked for another employer. In response to a “check the box” causation letter, he responded “no” when asked whether he was “able to state to a reasonable degree of medical certainty (more than 50%) that Ms. Mosley’s current symptomology is related to her employment at HG Staffing when considering all causes.” Based on these statements, HG Staffing denied Ms. Mosley’s claim for additional care from Dr. Rubright.

An independent medical evaluator, Dr. David West, agreed that Ms. Mosley probably sustained a work-related injury in January 2019, but he could not explain her current symptoms and did not believe they were “directly related” to her work injury.

On the other hand, Dr. Terry, whom Ms. Mosley first saw on December 19, 2019, after Dr. Rubright released her, stated in his records that he believed that her current symptoms were probably the “same problems” she had when treating with Dr. Rubright and “were related” to her work injury. He noted that she had always given a consistent history, and he had no reason to doubt her. He also checked “yes” when asked whether he agreed “that Amanda Mosley’s injury is more likely than not to a reasonable [d]egree of medical certainty an injury that occurred on the job while working for the company HG Staffing and the reason she had to seek medical attention.”

After the first hearing, the Court held that none of the medical proof was sufficient to resolve the issue as to whether Ms. Mosley’s current symptoms were primarily caused by her January 2019 work injury. Dr. Rubright qualified the opinions in his records, and the “check the box” letter was not an affirmative opinion against causation. Further, neither Dr. Rubright nor Dr. West explained why the fact that Ms. Mosley’s symptoms had eased after rest only to return when she worked somewhere else for a few weeks suggested that she suffered a “new injury” at her later employment. As for Dr. Terry’s opinions, the Court held that his records and the “check-the-box” letter were not enough to show that Ms. Mosley’s symptoms “primarily arose out of” her work injury.

Therefore, given that the burden belonged to Ms. Mosley, the Court denied her request for additional medical care and temporary disability benefits after her initial release from Dr. Rubright’s care.

For the second hearing, Ms. Mosley submitted a C-32 Medical Report from Dr. Terry. He stated, within a reasonable degree of medical certainty, that Ms. Mosley suffers from “right wrist DeQuervain’s tenosynovitis” that is primarily due to dropping a “shelf” out of a machine onto her hand while at work. He further believed that she was not at maximum medical improvement and required additional treatment; however, he did not anticipate any permanent disability or restrictions. As for temporary restrictions, he said he never took her off work, but her activities are restricted “as tolerated.” Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law

The parties stipulated, and the doctors agreed, that Ms. Mosley suffered a work injury to her right hand and wrist while working for HG Staffing. They dispute whether this injury was the source of Ms. Mosley’s current symptoms.

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Related

§ 50-6
Tennessee § 50-6
§ 50-6-102
Tennessee § 50-6-102(14)

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2021 TN WC 169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mosley-amanda-v-hg-staffing-llc-tennworkcompcl-2021.