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Honeycutt v. Elbert Walker Construction2/6/2002
George D. Honeycutt, Jr., appeals the grant of a directed verdict by Workers' Compensation Judge Brenza R. Irving, District 1-E, dismissing his claim for workers' compensation benefits against Elbert Walker, d/b/a Walker Construction (Walker). For the following reasons, we affirm the judgment in all respects.
Assignment of Error Number One
In his first assignment of error, Honeycutt asserts that the workers' compensation judge committed manifest error in granting the directed verdict in favor of Walker. We disagree.
Honeycutt represented himself in the proceedings below and represents himself in this appeal. In his filings with the Office of Workers' Compensation, he asserted that he became employed as a carpenter by Walker on or about September 1, 2000. The first page of the standard LDOL-WC-1008 form entitled, Disputed Claim for Compensation, provides a blank for the claimant to provide the date of injury or illness giving rise to the claim. Honeycutt filled in the blank by providing a date of injury of November 21, 2000. The second page of the standard form provides a section for the claimant to provide specific information concerning the accident and injury. In completing this section, Honeycutt asserted that the accident occurred at an unknown time and date while he was working on the construction of a log house in Madison Parish, Louisiana. He further stated that he first notified Walker of the accident and injury on November 23, 2000. A separate section on the second page of the report requested information concerning the nature of the dispute then existing between the employer and employee. Honeycutt completed that section by stating that he sought weekly benefits as well as medical treatment for an "Inguinal Hernia Repair" recommended by the E. A. Conway Medical Center in Monroe, Louisiana.
Trial of this matter occurred on May 18, 2001. At trial, Honeycutt testified and introduced three exhibits in support of his claim. Immediately before trial began, Honeycutt advised the workers' compensation judge that he had learned the month before that he needed surgery to repair a "busted" disc in his neck. Therefore, he was requesting benefits for both the hernia and his neck condition.
According to Honeycutt, the accident occurred sometime between one and two weeks before November 21, 2000. He testified that, while he and a co-worker were engaged in "jamming logs up into a cylinder," he "heard a loud noise pop in neck." He did not initially report the incident and first sought medical attention on November 21, 2000.
On that date, he presented himself to the emergency room of the E. A. Conway Medical Center with complaints not of neck pain, but of groin pain. The hospital emergency room record, being one of Honeycutt's three exhibits, describes Honeycutt's complaints as that of "lump + pain to [right] groin," which began approximately three weeks before the emergency room visit. The report is silent concerning the etiology of the pain.
Another of Honeycutt's exhibits, the operative report of Dr. Daniel Saad, confirms Honeycutt's testimony that Dr. Saad surgically repaired a right direct inguinal hernia on December 6, 2000, at the E. A. Conway Medical Center. However, the report contains no information concerning any history of how Honeycutt sustained the need for the surgical procedure or the extent or duration of any disability resulting from the surgery. The report simply concludes that Honeycutt "tolerated the procedure well without any complications."
Honeycutt's other exhibit is a note written on a prescription pad from the Huey P. Long Medical Center of Pineville, Louisiana, and purportedly signed b
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