Workers’ Compensation – Unreasonable Job Search – Disability

The North Carolina Industrial Commission’ properly found Plaintiff was not entitled to wage-loss compensation from April 2, 2020 until April 20, 2022.

We affirmed the Opinion and Award.

On January 21, 2020, Plaintiff injured his low back while working as a molding production supervisor for Defendant employer Consolidated Metco, Inc. at their facility in Bryson City, North Carolina. The following day, Plaintiff reported his injury to his supervisor, Chris Burch, and took a vacation day due to his back pain. At the time, Defendant-Employer was in the process of “shutting down their Bryson City facility in favor of the Canton plant and other facilities.” On January 23, 2020, Plaintiff saw Nicole Foxworth, a physician assistant at Everside Health, for an annual appointment and complained about back pain stemming from the work injury. Foxworth diagnosed Plaintiff with a lumbar strain and recommended Plaintiff continue taking ibuprofen, advised Plaintiff that he could continue his regular work duties, and ordered an x-ray which Plaintiff completed the same day at Smoky Mountain Urgent Care. The radiologist who interpreted the x-ray film included in the “impression” section of her report that Plaintiff had “mild degenerative disc disease.”

On February 11, 2020, Plaintiff visited his family physician, Dr. David Johnston, for a neurology referral because Plaintiff “want[ed] to go to flight school and need[ed] [an] ok to go.” Plaintiff did not mention his work injury or back pain to Dr. Johnston during the visit. In March 2020, when Burch asked Plaintiff to “pull the tools out of the press [to] send back over to Canton,” Plaintiff informed Burch that his back was bothering him again. According to Burch, Plaintiff did not take the news that tools were being moved to Canton very well. On April 3, 2020, Plaintiff was laid off by Defendant-Employer. Plaintiff’s layoff was unrelated to his work injury.

Plaintiff signed a document entitled “Separation and General Release of all Claims,” in which he agreed to no longer render services to Defendant-Employer and acknowledged that he may be denied further employment with Defendant-Employer should he later re-apply. When Plaintiff returned to collect his personal belongings after being laid off, he told Burch he was still experiencing back pain.

In March 2022, Plaintiff’s workers’ compensation claim came before Deputy Commissioner Jesse M. Tillman, III, who held Plaintiff was “entitled to have Defendants provide medical compensation” and “vocational rehabilitation” because Plaintiff “sustained a compensable injury by accident (specific trauma incident) to his low back on January 21, 2020.” Deputy Commissioner Tillman found Plaintiff was “totally, and after an eventually successful reasonable effort to return to work, partially disabled.” Deputy Commissioner Tillman further found “Plaintiff’s total disability . . . began on April 3, 2020 and continued until the Plaintiff successfully returned to work on June 6, 2022.” Defendants appealed to the Full Commission, which held Plaintiff was not entitled to any wage-loss compensation from April 3, 2020 to April 20, 2022.

The issues on appeal were whether the Full Commission erred by: (1) determining Plaintiff was not disabled from April 3, 2020 to April 20, 2022; and (2) relying on an unpublished opinion and “deficient” findings of fact to support conclusion of law 7. Although Plaintiff advances four theories in support of his contention that the Full Commission erred by determining he was not disabled from April 2, 2020 to April 20, 2022, all of Plaintiff’s challenges pertain to one overarching issue: whether the Full Commission erred by determining Plaintiff’s job search during this time period was unreasonable.

Among other things, Plaintiff argued the Full Commission erred by determining his job search was unreasonable. We disagreed. The Full Commission was free to find that Plaintiff’s job search was unreasonable based on Plaintiff’s job-search history, his decision to enroll in community college full-time rather than remain in the workforce, and his testimony indicating he was able to work during this time frame. Because competent evidence supports the Full Commission’s determination that Plaintiff did not conduct a reasonable job search, and the findings sufficiently explain how Plaintiff failed to conduct a reasonable job search, we concluded the Full Commission did not err by concluding Plaintiff was not disabled from April 2, 2020 to April 20, 2022. Accordingly, the Full Commission did not err by concluding Plaintiff was not entitled to wage-loss compensation for this time period.

Affirmed.

Cable v. Consolidated Metco Inc. (Lawyers’ Weekly No. 011-160-25, 17 pp.) (Jeff Carpenter, J.) Appealed from the North Carolina Industrial Commission. The Harper Law Firm, PLLC, by Joshua O. Harper and Richard B. Harper, for Plaintiff-Appellant. Roberts & Stevens, P.A., by Charles E. McGee, for Defendants-Appellees. North Carolina Court of Appeals