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Simmons v. City of Charleston2/19/2002
ident. Lee v. Wentworth Mfg. Co., 240 S.C. 165, 168, 125 S.E.2d 7, 9 (1962). "To be entitled to compensation, an employee need not necessarily be engaged at the time of injury in the actual performance of his work; it is sufficient if he is upon the employer's premises, 'occupying himself consistently with his contract of hire in some manner pertaining to or incidental to his employment.'" Id. (quoting McCoy v. Easley Cotton Mills, 218 S.C. 350, 356, 62 S.E.2d 772, 774 (1950)).
Under Schrader, we find Simmons is entitled to an award of benefits. The spider bite occurred while Simmons was employed, at a place where he reasonably needed to be in the performance of his duties, and while he was fulfilling those duties or engaged in doing something incidental thereto. Clearly, the nature of his job as a firefighter required Simmons to wear fireman's boots. Placing those boots on his feet fulfilled a task incidental to his employment. Under Schrader, Simmons satisfied the requirements necessary to recover for an injury caused by a spider bite.
III.
The City next argues that Simmons must offer medical evidence demonstrating he is disabled in order to recover for total disability under S.C. Code Ann. § 42-9-10 (Supp. 2000). We disagree.
"South Carolina's workers' compensation law represents a combination of two competing models of workers' compensation, one economic and the other medical." Stephenson v. Rice Servs., Inc., 323 S.C. 113, 116, 473 S.E.2d 699, 700 (1996). Under the more traditional economic theory, the goal of worker's compensation law is to compensate workers for reductions in their earning capacity caused by work-related injuries. Id. This is the criterion for compensation under the Workers' Compensation Act. See S.C. Code Ann. § 42-1-120 (1985) ("The term 'disability' means incapacity because of injury to earn the wages which the employee was receiving at the time of injury in the same or any other employment.").
Notwithstanding the definition of disability in section 42-1-120, South Carolina's workers' compensation law also recognizes a competing concept of disability that is tied to medical impairment rather than to wage loss or to any reduction in earning capacity. The schedule injuries, which typically provide for fixed awards of workers' compensation based on degrees of medical impairment to certain listed body parts, are compensable without regard to whether the employee is able to continue working at the same job . In other words, with schedule injuries, the fact the employee still is able to work constitutes no bar to compensation. Stephenson, 323 S.C. at 117, 473 S.E.2d at 701.
Under the medical theory, the focus is on the medical impairment of the employee. Id.
When an employee is not statutorily deemed totally disabled according to the type of injury suffered, the economic model is generally used to prove total disability. Id. at 118, 473 S.E.2d at 702. Under the economic model, "the Commission may predicate a finding of total disability on the claimant's complete loss of earning capacity as a result of a work-related injury." Id. The ability to perform limited tasks for which no stable job market exists does not prevent an employee from proving total disability. Id.
We do not think a medical doctor's testimony is necessary to prove total disability under the economic model. We are guided by South Carolina cases that have allowed claimants who were similarly situated to recover under the economic theory without the introduction of medical testimony. In Coleman v. Quality Concrete Products, Inc., 245 S.C. 625, 142 S.E.2d 43 (1965), the court allowed a fifty-eight-year-old heavy equipment operator
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