Spencer v. Tyson Foods, Inc.

869 So. 2d 1069, 2004 Miss. App. LEXIS 287, 2004 WL 728223
CourtCourt of Appeals of Mississippi
DecidedApril 6, 2004
Docket2003-WC-00805-COA
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 869 So. 2d 1069 (Spencer v. Tyson Foods, Inc.) 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
Spencer v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 869 So. 2d 1069, 2004 Miss. App. LEXIS 287, 2004 WL 728223 (Mich. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

869 So.2d 1069 (2004)

Delores SPENCER, Appellant,
v.
TYSON FOODS, INC., Appellee.

No. 2003-WC-00805-COA.

Court of Appeals of Mississippi.

April 6, 2004.

*1071 John Griffin Jones, Aubrey Horace Brewer, Jackson, attorneys for appellant.

Michelle Barlow Mims, James Ryan Perkins, Daniel M. Baker, attorneys for appellee.

Before McMILLIN, C.J., BRIDGES and GRIFFIS, JJ.

GRIFFIS, J., for the Court.

¶ 1. Delores Spencer claimed that she was injured while working at the Tyson Foods, Inc. ("Tyson") chicken processing plant. The Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission found that Spencer suffered a compensable injury in the course and scope of her employment and granted disability benefits. Tyson appealed to the Circuit Court of Hinds County, and the Commission's award was reversed. Finding substantial evidence to support the Commission's findings, we reverse and reinstate the order of the Commission.

FACTS

¶ 2. Delores Spencer was employed as a breast puller. Breast pullers work at the end of the deboning line where, after pulling the breast meat off the carcass, they inspect the meat for excess bones or fat.

¶ 3. On April 20, 2000, Spencer was pulling a chicken breast when she suddenly felt pain in her neck, right shoulder, arm and hand. Spencer claims that she immediately informed her supervisor, Tommie Sanders, that her hand had gone numb, and he sent her to the plant nurse. Sanders disputes this and testified that he never sent her to the nurse, but he did recall Spencer telling him that her arm was bothering her.

¶ 4. Spencer testified that she went to the nurse who wrapped her arm in a blue Ace bandage-like material from her hand to midway up her arm. The nurse could not remember treating Spencer and could not find Spencer's name in the nurse's injury log book. Both Sanders and the nurse testified that it is company policy for an employee to sign the log book before they are allowed to see the nurse. However, the regular plant nurse was on vacation that night and a temporary nurse was filling in as the nurse on duty. Spencer testified that the temporary nurse treated her, and she described the temporary nurse and recalled their conversation.

¶ 5. After she returned from the nurse's station, Spencer testified that Sanders and the plant supervisor, Sam Thomas, placed her on "light duty" work at a chicken washing station, where she was not required to use her right arm. Spencer asked Thomas if she could go to the doctor, but she claims that he told her she would lose her Good Friday holiday pay if she left. Spencer worked the remainder of her shift at the washing station.

¶ 6. At the end of her shift, Spencer went home and told her husband that she had been injured at work. Spencer tried to go to her family doctor later that morning, but his office was closed for the holiday. By noon, Spencer could not move the right side of her body, so her husband took her to the emergency room. She was treated by her family physician, Dr. L.C. Tennin. Dr. Tennin opined that Spencer's condition resulted from the cumulative effects of repetitive work motions which exacerbated an underlying condition, cervical spondylosis. Dr. Tennin then referred Spencer to Dr. Mitchell Myers, a neurologist.

¶ 7. On April 24, 2000, Spencer was transferred to St. Dominic's to see Dr. *1072 Myers. From radiological studies, Dr. Myers noted bony abnormalities known as spondylosis which compress and can compromise the spinal cord. However, Dr. Myers' ultimate diagnosis was transverse myelitis, an inflammation of the spinal cord, with cervical spondylosis. Dr. Myers testified that it was impossible to know which was the primary cause of the injury, but that there was no question work activities could exacerbate pre-existing spondylosis.

¶ 8. Dr. Myers then consulted Dr. Adam Lewis, a neurosurgeon, to operate on Spencer. In his deposition, Dr. Myers testified:

I mean, basically I said to Dr. Lewis, I said, "Adam, I think this woman has got transverse myelitis. Her spinal cord looks like it is being compressed. She's got spondylosis. We better decompress her or we are going to have a worse problem here."

¶ 9. In his operative notes, Dr. Lewis gave Spencer a pre-operative diagnosis of cervical spondylosis with traumatic spinal cord injury. Dr. Lewis operated on Spencer on April 26, 2000, and his diagnosis did not change. In his deposition, Dr. Lewis testified that, after consultation with other physicians and obtaining additional history, it was his opinion that repetitive motions from Spencer's work led to her injury. Dr. Lewis reasoned:

So it sounded to me like it was a traumatic event. Small, many traumatic events repeated over time, which led to the weakness. She didn't have any prodrome of an upper respiratory infection or previous viral infection, which you often see with transverse myelitis.

¶ 10. The medical records and testimony indicate that the treating physicians could not agree on the primary cause of Spencer's injury; however, they all admitted that Spencer had spondylosis, which may have been aggravated by the repetitive motions of her work. The diagnosis of spondylosis was even documented by an MRI. Dr. Lewis testified that his diagnosis of spondylosis remained unchanged following surgery and was further bolstered by the fact Spencer's strength significantly improved within twenty-four hours of the operation. He testified that with transverse myelitis the recovery would have been much slower.

¶ 11. Spencer testified that, before her surgery, she spoke with Scottie Ball, Tyson's head nurse, and told her that the injury was work related. Ball disputes this fact; however, Ball testified that her notes of the telephone conversation read, "Problems started when she was cutting wings. Stated after seeing nurse she washed meat for the rest of the evening." Ball explained that she was of the opinion that "just because something happens while you're doing some particular thing, that doesn't mean it is related to that job I guess is what I'm trying to say."

¶ 12. Spencer initiated the workers' compensation proceedings by filing a petition to controvert with the Commission. Spencer alleged that she suffered a compensable workplace injury. The workers' compensation administrative law judge conducted a hearing on the merits. The administrative law judge ruled that Spencer sustained a compensable injury and ordered Tyson to pay permanent total disability benefits of $207.02 per week, beginning on April 20, 2000, and continuing for 450 weeks. Tyson appealed to the Commission, and the administrative law judge's findings were affirmed. Tyson then appealed to the Hinds County Circuit Court, where the Commission's order was reversed. This appeal was deflected to this Court for consideration.

*1073 STANDARD OF REVIEW

¶ 13. An appellate court must defer to an administrative agency's findings of fact if there is even a quantum of credible evidence which supports the agency's decision. Hale v. Ruleville Health Care Center, 687 So.2d 1221, 1224 (Miss.1997). "This highly deferential standard of review essentially means that this Court and the circuit courts will not overturn a Commission decision unless said decision was arbitrary and capricious." Id. at 1225; Georgia Pacific Corp. v. Taplin, 586 So.2d 823 (Miss.1991).

¶ 14. The supreme court has held:

We do not sit as triers of fact; that is done by the Commission.

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Bluebook (online)
869 So. 2d 1069, 2004 Miss. App. LEXIS 287, 2004 WL 728223, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/spencer-v-tyson-foods-inc-missctapp-2004.