The best person to decide if an employee is fit to return to work and stop collecting comp benefits is the employee’s doctor, right? Not necessarily, according to this court.
A nursing assistant slipped and hurt her back and leg on the job. Her employer then offered to provide her with a doctor, but she declined.
Nearly two years later she said that the pain from the fall hadn’t subsided. So the company sent her to a specialist who operated on her.
That helped — a little. The pain in her leg went away, but her back still hurt.
After some physical therapy, the specialist said she was fit to return to work — if her employer made some accommodations. So the company modified her duties and welcomed her back to work.
But after two days she claimed she couldn’t perform the duties and told her supervisor she wasn’t coming back. She wanted permanent total disability.
‘We did everything that was asked of us’
No way, her employer said. Her doctor said she was capable of working, and the company had followed the doc’s orders to a T.
But her lawyer was able to dig up a vocational expert that took her side and said she wasn’t fit for duty. The woman said she might be able to work for 30 minutes or so but would then need to lie down for another 30 minutes to recover.
The court bought it and ruled in her favor.
‘Why didn’t you say that earlier?’
When the company appealed it said that according to state law an employee who “refuses to accept reasonable accommodation” can’t be ruled permanently and totally disabled.
The appeals court agreed — and admitted that was a good point. However, it said that it couldn’t consider that argument because it hadn’t been brought up during the original trial. Case closed — the employee collects comp benefits.
Cite: Shadescrest Health Care Center v. Holloway
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