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Sagely v. ABC Rail Products Corporation12/17/1999
Rocky Sagely sued his employer, ABC Rail Products Corporation ("ABC"), on July 8, 1998, to recover workers' compensation benefits for injuries he had sustained to his shoulder and neck on October 17, 1995, during the course of his employment. ABC answered on August 17, 1998, admitting liability for the shoulder injury, but denying liability for the neck injury and raising the statute of limitations as a defense to the claim based on that injury. Following an ore tenus proceeding, the court, on February 17, 1999, entered the following order:
"In this case, the plaintiff claims workers' compensation benefits for separate injuries to his right shoulder and the cervical region of his neck, both of which the plaintiff relates to an October 17, 1995, accident which took place while he was working as a machine operator at the defendant's rail car wheel plant in Calera, Alabama. ABC Rail has paid compensation benefits and medical expenses for the injury to the plaintiff's shoulder, but denied from the outset any benefits for the neck-injury claim. In its answer to the complaint, the defendant denied a work-related injury involving the neck, and asserted the defense of the statute of limitations. "This case was tried on February 3, 1999, and based on the stipulations of the parties, the medical records and other evidence presented at that time, the Court makes the following findings of fact: "1. On October 17, 1995, the plain-tiff suffered an injury to his shoulder while employed by ABC Rail when he slipped in some oil and fell on his side. "2. The plaintiff's average weekly wage for the 52-week period prior to the October 17, 1995, injury was $1,048.03 per week. "3. The plaintiff lost a total of 45 weeks of work because of his shoulder injury, for which he received temporary total-disability payments at the then maximum rate of $443 per week for a total of $19,935. The Court finds that none of this time off from work was necessitated by the claimed neck injury. Although the plaintiff occasionally complained of neck pain following his accident, it is clear from the evidence that he was taken off work because of problems with his shoulder, for which he underwent two surgical procedures in January and July of 1996. Medical records also indicate that the plaintiff's neck pain improved for months at a time, following which he would again complain of occasional pain in his neck. "4. The plaintiff reached MMI [`maximum medical improvement'] from his shoulder injury and returned to work on November 13, 1996. "5. On November 26, 1996, the plaintiff was assigned a six percent whole-body physical impairment based on limitations involving his shoulder. "6. Based on an average weekly wage figure of $1,048.03 ..., a six percent whole-body impairment produces a weekly permanent-partial-disability benefit of $41.92. "7. Plaintiff has received weekly workers' compensation benefit payments of $41.92 on his shoulder for a total of 67 weeks through January 7, 1999, and he continued to receive such payments up to the time of trial. "8. The plaintiff voluntarily resigned his employment with ABC Rail on or about July 1, 1997, at which time he accepted employment at the Mercedes-Benz plant in Vance, Alabama. The plaintiff testified that between the time he returned to work for ABC Rail in November of 1996 until the date of his resignation in July of 1997 he lost no time from work as a result of the claimed injury to his neck or because of his shoulder, and, indeed, the plaintiff has admitted working as much as 25 to 30 hours of overtime per week during this period. "9. After the plaintiff had been working for Mercedes-Benz for just over a year, he was diagnosed with two herniated discs in his neck at levels C4-5 and C5-6, and on August 3, 1998
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