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Goforth v. K-Mart Corp.12/21/2004
a return to work. In an attempt to remove himself from the rolls of Social Security disability, Mr. Goforth came to work for K-Mart. Never did he fail to disclose his medical history. Mr. Goforth's efforts should be applauded, not derided.
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Conclusions of Law
1. Sometime around May 10, 2000, plaintiff sustained a compensable injury to his back arising out of and in the course and scope of his employment with defendant-employer by way of a specific traumatic incident of the work assigned. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-2(6).
2. As a result of plaintiff's compensable injury , plaintiff is entitled to receive ongoing weekly benefits from August 27, 2000, at the compensation rate of $226.67 per week and continuing until further order of the Commission. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-29.
3. Plaintiff is entitled to have defendant provide all medical treatment arising out of plaintiff's compensable injury to the extent it tends to affect a cure, give relief or lessen plaintiff's period of disability. This will include all care directed by Dr. Samuel J. Chewning. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-25.
4. Defendant has defended this claim without a good faith basis for doing so. This defense constitutes unreasonable defense of this claim and defendant shall pay plaintiff's attorney's fees, which shall be taxed as costs. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-88.1.
Defendant argues that the Commission erred in concluding that Goforth's back condition was causally related to the May 2000 work accident and not to the pre-existing back condition. To support the contention that the May 2000 injury was a direct and natural result of Goforth's original injury, Defendant cites Heatherly v. Montgomery Components, Inc., 71 N.C. App. 377, 381, 323 S.E.2d 29, 31 (1984) (refracture of a bone in the same place as an earlier compensable fracture was the direct and natural result of the original injury).
But in the more recent case of Ruffin v. Compass Group USA, 150 N.C. App. 480, 481, 563 S.E.2d 633, 635 (2002), the plaintiff injured her back when she pulled a forty-pound box from a truck. Id. A MRI revealed that the plaintiff had pre-existing problems including "an unusual curvature of the spine and disc herniations." Id. at 482, 563 S.E.2d at 635. The plaintiff's medical provider concluded that the injury aggravated the pre-existing condition. Id. This Court, in Ruffin, held that aggravation of a pre-existing condition which results in loss of wage earning capacity is compensable. Id. at 484, 563 S.E.2d at 637. See also Smith v. Champion Int'l., 134 N.C. App. 180, 182, 517 S.E.2d 164, 166 (1999) (plaintiff had compensable injury when work related specific traumatic incident aggravated severe pre-existing back problems).
Moreover, the "work-related injury need not be the sole cause of the problems to render an injury compensable." Hoyle v. Carolina Associated Mills, 122 N.C. App. 462, 465, 470 S.E.2d 357, 359 (1996). "If the work-related accident `contributed in some reasonable degree' to plaintiff's disability, she is entitled to compensation." Id. at 466, 470 S.E.2d at 359 (citing Kendrick v. City of Greensboro, 80 N.C. App. 183, 187, 341 S.E.2d 122, 124, disc. review denied, 317 N.C. 335, 346 S.E.2d 500 (1986)).
When a pre-existing, nondisabling, non-job-related condition is aggravated or accelerated by an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employment or by an occupational disease so that disability results, then the employer must compensate the employee for the entire resulting disability even though it would not have disabled a normal person to that extent.
Morrison, 304 N.C. at 18, 282 S.E.2d at 470 (emphasis origi
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