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Whirlpool Corporation v. Nakhoneinh1/28/2002
Assigned on Briefs - October 26, 2001
We granted this appeal to determine whether the employee proved by a preponderance of the evidence that (1) she complied with the notice requirement of Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-201 and that (2) her injury was caused by her employment as required by Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-103(a). We hold that she complied with the notice requirement and that her injury arose out of her employment. The judgment of the trial court and the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel is reversed. The case is remanded to the trial court for proceedings consistent with this opinion.
Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-225(e); Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law by Special Workers' Compensation Panel Reversed; Judgment of the Trial Court Reversed; Case Remanded.
Janice M. Holder, J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which Frank F. Drowota, III, C.J., and E. Riley Anderson and William M. Barker, JJ., joined. Adolpho A. Birch, Jr., J., not participating.
OPINION
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY
Ketkeo Nakhoneinh, a native of Laos, was fifty-eight years old at the time of trial. She completed only six years of education in Laos. After moving to the United States in 1979, Ms. Nakhoneinh completed one and one-half years of vocational training. She speaks and reads some English but has difficulty understanding and communicating in English. Ms. Nakhoneinh has been employed by various industrial factories since 1979. In 1989, she began working at Whirlpool Corporation ("Whirlpool") performing hand-intensive assembly line work.
In 1996, Ms. Nakhoneinh began experiencing pain in her left wrist. Dr. Richard Garvin, her primary care physician, diagnosed Ms. Nakhoneinh with carpal tunnel syndrome. Dr. Garvin did not comment on possible causes for her wrist pain. At that time, Ms. Naknoneinh filed a Sickness and Accident report with Whirlpool seeking short term disability for a non-work related injury. She applied two additional times in 1997 for Sickness and Accident benefits related to her left wrist.
On July 9, 1998, Ms. Nakhoneinh went to the Whirlpool medical department complaining of pain in her hands. When the nurse was unable to understand her, Ms. Nakhoneinh asked Lucy Phillips, a union steward who could communicate with Ms. Nakhoneinh, to accompany her to the medical department. Ms. Phillips told the nurse that Ms. Nakhoneinh's hands were hurting and that she needed to see a doctor. The nurse responded that the procedure was for the Whirlpool medical department to treat the employee before sending the employee to a doctor. Ms. Nakhoneinh gave the nurse a statement of her medical restrictions from Dr. Garvin. Those restrictions required Ms. Nakhoneinh to refrain from repetitive hand motion and heavy lifting and to alternate hand usage. On July 10, 1998, Ms. Nakhoneinh applied for Sickness and Accident benefits. On the back of the Sickness and Accident form, Dr. Garvin indicated a diagnosis of bilateral carpal tunnel syndrome for which he had been seeing Ms. Nakhoneinh since August of 1996. Whirlpool denied the claim and laid her off until she could return to work.
From July of 1998 through November of 1998, Dr. Garvin sent Whirlpool various forms indicating that Ms. Nakhoneinh remained under his care and restrictions. Whirlpool also received a notice on August 10, 1998, advising that Ms. Nakhoneinh was under the care of Dr. Jiroj Thephasdin, a doctor located in Merrillville, Indiana. Ms. Nakhoneinh sought treatment from Dr. Thephasdin because he spoke and understood her native language. The notice sent by Dr. Thephasdin diagnosed Ms. Nakhoneinh with carpal tunnel syndrome with cervical radiculop
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