Coker v. Beverly Enterprises Tennessee6/25/2002
The employee or claimant, Ms. Coker, initiated this civil action to recover workers' compensation benefits for an injury by accident arising out of and in the course of her employment as a nurse for Beverly Healthcare. The employer denied liability and denied the claimant suffers any permanent disability. Following a trial on the merits on May 21, 2001, the trial court resolved the issues in favor of the claimant and awarded, inter alia, permanent partial disability benefits based on 65 percent to the leg. The employer has appealed.
Appellate review is de novo upon the record of the trial court, accompanied by a presumption of correctness of the findings of fact, unless the preponderance of the evidence is otherwise. Tenn. Code Ann. ยง 50-6-225(e)(2). The reviewing court is required to conduct an independent examination of the record to determine where the preponderance of the evidence lies. Wingert v. Government of Sumner County, 908 S.W.2d 921, 922 (Tenn. 1995). Conclusions of law are subject to de novo review on appeal without any presumption of correctness. Nutt v. Champion Intern. Corp., 980 S.W.2d 365, 367 (Tenn. 1998). Issues of statutory construction are solely questions of law. Bryant v. Genco Stamping & Mfg. Co., 33 S.W.3d 761, 765 (Tenn. 2000). Where the trial judge has seen and heard the witnesses, especially if issues of credibility and weight to be given oral testimony are involved, considerable deference must be accorded those circumstances on review, because it is the trial court which had the opportunity to observe the witnesses' demeanor and to hear the in-court testimony. Long v. Tri-Con Ind., Ltd., 996 S.W.2d 173, 177 (Tenn. 1999). The trial court's findings with respect to credibility and weight of the evidence may generally be inferred from the manner in which the court resolves conflicts in the testimony and decides the case. Tobitt v. Bridgestone/Firestone, Inc., 59 S.W.3d 57, 61 (Tenn. 2001).
The claimant is a high school graduate and a licensed practical nurse. She has worked as a LPN at Manchester Hospital, Harton Regional Hospital in Tullahoma, Children's Hospital in San Francisco, California, and Crestwood Nursing Home in Manchester. She began working for Beverly in 1986. Her duties include administering medication and treatment, working on a computer, calling a doctor if one is needed, taking doctor's orders, filling out summaries and filling out insurance reports. She typically works eight hour shifts, of which approximately six hours, she testified, is spent on her feet. Since graduation from high school, she has not worked at any job other than as a nurse. She had surgery on her right knee in 1989 and has suffered from seizures since childhood, for which she takes medication and is treated by a Dr. Zimmerman. Her most recent seizure was in 1990. Even before her fall at work, she had some knee problems, for which she received a cortisone shot on February 23, 2000.
On February 25, 2000, at about 9:30 a.m., she fell on her left knee while administering medication to a patient in furtherance of her duties as a nurse for the employer. Under questioning by her attorney, she testified as follows:
Well, Ms. - - I went over to Ms. Sherill's bed. I gave - - I was giving her medication; and she had a wheel chair backed up next to her wall; and I turned around; and, when I turned around, I hit the wheelchair leg and I fell down. The bedside table was on the left side; and I fell down and hit my knees.
A co-worker put some ice on her knee. The claimant continued working with discomfort. She visited Dr. Lloyd Keith Brown, an orthopedic surgeon, on March 13, 2000. On March 29, 2000, she again fell on her left knee, but not a
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