Walgamotte v. Avondale Shipyards, Inc.

420 So. 2d 1157, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 8236
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 12, 1982
DocketNo. 5-292
StatusPublished

This text of 420 So. 2d 1157 (Walgamotte v. Avondale Shipyards, Inc.) 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
Walgamotte v. Avondale Shipyards, Inc., 420 So. 2d 1157, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 8236 (La. Ct. App. 1982).

Opinion

BOUTALL, Judge.

Plaintiff, Randall Walgamotte, brought suit against his employer Avondale Shipyards seeking worker’s compensation benefits for total and permanent disability due to a knee injury which he incurred on the job. From a judgment finding his disability to be 10% partial loss of use of his right leg under the scheduled loss provisions of R.S. 23:1221(4)(h) and crediting against him the amount which he had already received under the Federal Longshoreman and Harbor Worker’s Compensation Act, plaintiff appeals. We affirm.

FACTS

Appellant, at the time of trial, was a 22 year old man with an 8th grade education. He was employed as a pipefitter at Avon-dale Shipyards when on December 11, 1979 his knee popped out of joint while he was lifting a heavy pipe. The next day appellant went to Ochsner Hospital for emergency treatment. Examination revealed a torn cartilage known as the medial meniscus. The cartilage could not be repaired and so appellant was operated on for its removal on January 22, 1980.

Dr. Jefferson Kaye, the operating physician, testified that he released appellant to return to work around April 7, 1980, and at that time furnished him with a return to work slip. Appellant altered the date on the slip (he says under the apparent impression that Dr. Kaye had told him to return to work when he felt able) and did not return [1158]*1158to work until almost two months later at the end of May.

Appellant resumed his job at Avondale, however after a week he complained of serious pain in his right knee and felt unable to continue work as a pipefitter, which involves stooping, climbing, and squatting. Since Avondale considered appellant a good worker, he was kept on and assigned a less strenuous job in the pipe shop. Nonetheless appellant testified at that time he still experienced unendurable pain from standing eight hours a day.

Randy Walgamotte worked on and off from May until the end of August, 1980 and finally left Avondale’s employ of his own volition at this time. Avondale then began paying him weekly benefits of $117.00 under the Federal Longshoremen’s and Harbor Workers’ Compensation Act. Around this time appellant filed suit for total and permanent disability under the Louisiana Worker’s Compensation Act, and notified Avondale that he was electing to be paid under the state plan. The state act would, by appellant’s calculations, have yielded $148.00 per week as opposed to $117.00. Avondale did not acknowledge appellant’s choice and continued to pay him at the federal rate.

Appellant testified that after leaving Avondale he had two brief jobs at service stations. He stated that he was fired from the first when he told his employer that he could not perform a task involving heavy lifting which he had been ordered to do. Appellant testified that he was let go from the second job when he disclosed that he was involved in a workman’s compensation suit.

At the time of trial Walgamotte was employed as an investigative shopper for a security service. The job pays minimum wage and entails driving sometimes a distance of several hundred miles a day. He testified that his knee aches and stiffens up during these long drives.

Trial was had in the matter on June 2, 1981 in the 24th Judicial District Court for the Parish of Jefferson. The trial judge found Walgamotte to have a 10% partial disability of the right leg under La.R.S. 23:1221(4)(h) and gave defendant a credit for the sum which he had already been paid in Federal compensation benefits, sufficient to satisfy the award. Plaintiff has appealed that judgment.

ISSUES ON APPEAL

Walgamotte raises basically two issues on appeal:

1. Does appellant fall under the odd lot classification of total and permanent disability because he works in pain due to a work-related injury?
2. Did the trial court err in not awarding appellant penalties and attorney’s fees against appellee Avondale Shipyards under the provisions of La.R.S. 22:657 in connection with Avondale’s refusal to pay appellant under the state as opposed to the federal schedule of compensation, with its refusal to pay certain medical bills, and in its decision to cut off benefits in December of 1980?

ODD LOT STATUS

Appellant argues that he should fall under the “odd lot” classification of total and permanent disability due to the pain he suffers when he works, as a result of the knee injury he incurred while employed at Avondale.

The Louisiana Worker’s Compensation Act, La.R.S. 23:1221(2) provides lifetime compensation, “For injury producing permanent and total disability of an employee to engage in any 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, and experience... ”

Nonetheless additional grounds for total and permanent disability have evolved through the jurisprudence as a means of providing for the totally and permanently disabled worker who does not fit within the statutory definition as quoted above.

[1159]*1159Since the case of Dusang v. Henry C. Beck Builders, Inc., 389 So.2d 367 (La.1980) it has been clear under Louisiana law that a worker who cannot return to any gainful employment without substantial pain is entitled to compensation benefits for total disability.

The “odd lot” doctrine interlocks with the substantial pain cases in that if a worker must suffer substantial pain while he works he may be considered an “odd lot” in the job market (somewhat akin to a manufacturer’s second) because his injury has made him a less desirable employee or simply unable to compete with healthy workers for a job. The effect then, of the overlap between the odd lot and substantial pain doctrines is to broaden the criteria under which a worker who suffers substantial pain on the job could be found to be eligible for permanent and total disability compensation.

The Louisiana Supreme Court adopted the odd lot doctrine in the 1980 case of Oster v. Wetzel Printing, Inc., 390 So.2d 1318 (La.1980), explaining as follows:

“In order to determine whether the plaintiff fits within this category of odd lot workers, he must show that because of his physical impairment, mental capacity, education, training, age, availability of employment in his area, and any other relevant factors, that he “cannot perform the substantial and material parts of some gainful work or occupation with reasonable continuity. “Reese v. Preston Marketing Assoc., 274 Minn. 150, 142 N.W.2d 721, 723 (1966). If the plaintiff is successful in showing a combination of factors indicating that the services which he is able to render are so limited in quality, quantity, or dependability that a market for his labor does not exist within which he can effectively compete, he has presented a prima facie case for classification in the odd lot category. An offering of such proof by the plaintiff, therefore, satisfies his burden of proving that he should be awarded benefits for permanent and total disability.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Brown Ex Rel. Brown v. Safeway Stores, Inc.
483 P.2d 305 (New Mexico Court of Appeals, 1971)
Lyons v. Industrial Special Indemnity Fund
565 P.2d 1360 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1977)
Reese v. Preston Marketing Association
142 N.W.2d 721 (Supreme Court of Minnesota, 1966)
Dusang v. Henry C. Beck Builders, Inc.
389 So. 2d 367 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1980)
Kinsey v. Travelers Ins. Co., Inc.
402 So. 2d 226 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1981)
Lattin v. Hica Corp.
395 So. 2d 690 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1981)
Schouest v. J. Ray McDermott & Co., Inc.
411 So. 2d 1042 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1982)
Wilson v. Ebasco Services, Inc.
393 So. 2d 1248 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1981)
Oster v. Wetzel Printing, Inc.
390 So. 2d 1318 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 1980)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
420 So. 2d 1157, 1982 La. App. LEXIS 8236, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/walgamotte-v-avondale-shipyards-inc-lactapp-1982.