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Hauskins v. Coates Construction Co.12/20/1999
AFFIRMED IN PART/ MODIFIED IN PART
JUDGMENT ORDER
This case is before the Court upon the entire record, including the order of referral to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel, and the Panel's Memorandum Opinion setting forth its findings of fact and conclusions of law, which are incorporated herein by reference.
Whereupon, it appears to the Court that the Memorandum Opinion of the Panel should be accepted and approved; and
It is, therefore, ordered that the Panel's findings of fact and conclusions of law are adopted and affirmed, and the decision of the Panel is made the judgment of the Court.
Costs will be paid by appellants, Coates and Lumbermens Mutual Casualty Company, for which execution may issue if necessary.
IT IS SO ORDERED on December 20, 1999.
PER CURIAM
MEMORANDUM OPINION
AFFIRMED IN PART/MODIFIED IN PART
MEMORANDUM OPINION
This workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel of the Supreme Court in accordance with Tenn. Code Ann. ยง50-6-225(e)(3) for hearing and reporting of findings of fact and conclusions of law.
In this appeal, the employer/appellant, Coates Construction Company ("Coates"), presents two basic arguments: (1) that the trial court's awarding of permanent total disability is contrary to the preponderance of the proof presented at trial, insisting the appropriate award be based upon permanent partial disability instead; and (2) that the trial court erred in awarding attorney's fees based on 400 weeks of disability. For his issue on appeal, the employee Randy Gene Hauskins ("Hauskins") seeks temporary total disability benefits from January 6, 1998, until April 22, 1998, the date of maximum medical improvement, suggesting it was inadvertently overlooked by the trial court.
The panel affirms both the trial court's findings that Hauskins is entitled to permanent total disability benefits and the awarding of attorney's fees based on 400 weeks of disability benefits. The panel modifies the trial court's decision by awarding temporary total disability benefits to Hauskins from January 6, 1998, until April 22, 1998.
On May 14, 1996, Hauskins was injured in the scope of his employment with Coates when he came into contact with a 7,200- volt power line while working on the roof of a house and was knocked unconscious. He fell 30 feet to the ground sustaining fractured vertebrae and a brain injury. As a result, Hauskins is a paraplegic and suffers permanent memory damage and diminished reasoning skills. Coates voluntarily paid disability benefits of $266.66 per week to Hauskins from the time of the accident until January 6, 1998.
In February 1998, Dr. Thomas Groomes, a specialist in physical medicine and rehabilitation who treated Hauskins, stated in a deposition for a separate civil action that Hauskins was unemployable due to constant burning pain in his back and lower extremities. Following an examination on April 22, 1998, Dr. Groomes determined that Hauskins had reached maximum medical improvement and that Hauskins had sustained a 79% whole body impairment including a 5% impairment due to the brain injury. Dr. Groomes also noted that Hauskins' pain had improved since he began taking Neurontin in August of 1997. Dr. Groomes testified that Hauskins was employable within limits specified in the C- 32 form completed by Dr. Groomes.
In a workers' compensation case, appellate review on factual issues is de novo with a presumption that the trial court's findings are correct, unless the preponderance of the evidence is
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