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[T] Echols v. Granville Medical Management6/17/2003
An unpublished opinion of the North Carolina Court of Appeals does not constitute controlling legal authority. Citation is disfavored, but may be permitted in accordance with the provisions of Rule 30(e)(3) of the North Carolina Rules of Appellate Procedure.
Ruthetta Coffman Echols (plaintiff) appeals from an opinion and award of the Industrial Commission denying her claim for workers' compensation benefits. Plaintiff was employed as a physician's assistant by Granville Medical Management, Inc. (employer) under a one-year contract beginning 13 July 1998. Plaintiff worked at the Swansboro Medical Center and at the Emerald Isle Primary Care Clinic, both of which were owned by employer. Plaintiff was working at the Emerald Isle Primary Care Clinic on 15 August 1998 when she received a telephone call from Lynn Riggs (Ms. Riggs) around 5:00 p.m. Ms. Riggs asked plaintiff to come by her house to look at Mr. Riggs' hand because he had cut it while working in the garage earlier that day. The Riggs were neighbors of plaintiff and were also patients of employer. Plaintiff agreed to stop by the Riggs' house on her way home.
While traveling to the Riggs' house, plaintiff was involved in an automobile collision when her vehicle was rear-ended. She stated she did not experience any pain or discomfort immediately following the accident and she believed she was not injured. Following the collision, plaintiff went to the Riggs' house where she examined, cleaned, and bandaged Mr. Riggs' hand. Plaintiff then drove home. Later that evening, she suffered pain in her leg and back.
Plaintiff began physical therapy on 20 August 1998 and underwent physical therapy three times a week until July 1999. She received treatment from several medical providers and was placed on restricted work duty. Plaintiff worked full-time until 24 June 1999. She worked approximately twenty-four to thirty hours a week thereafter until her employment contract expired on 11 July 1999.
On 9 August 1999, plaintiff filed a Form 18 seeking workers' compensation due to injuries she sustained in an automobile collision while in the course and scope of her employment. Granville Medical Management, Inc. and N.C. Farm Bureau Mutual Insurance Company (defendants) filed a Form 61 denying plaintiff'sworkers' compensation claim on 24 August 1999. Plaintiff filed a Form 33 request for hearing dated 22 March 2000 because of defendants' failure to recognize plaintiff's workers' compensation claim. Defendants filed a Form 33R dated 20 April 2000 denying that plaintiff's alleged injury occurred in the course and scope of her employment and contending that plaintiff failed to timely report her alleged injury pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. ยง 97-22.
Plaintiff's claim was heard on 5 February 2001 by a deputy commissioner who concluded in an opinion and award filed on 23 May 2001 that plaintiff had sustained an injury within the course and scope of her employment and was entitled to receive workers' compensation benefits as a result. The deputy commissioner awarded plaintiff partial disability benefits in the amount of $532.00 per week for the periods of work she missed as a result of her injuries. The deputy commissioner also awarded plaintiff payment of past and future medical expenses incurred for treatment of the sustained injuries. Defendants appealed the award to the Full Commission. The Industrial Commission rejected the conclusions of the deputy commissioner and denied plaintiff's claim. The Industrial Commission found that " laintiff submitted her medical bills following the 15 August 1998 accident to group insurance and did not allege her condition was work-related until almost a year after the accident." The Industr
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