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McCarty v. Delta Pride1/30/2001
MI-095
Randall Scott McCarty contends the superior court erred when it reversed an award entered by the appellate division of the State Board of Workers' Compensation. We agree and reverse.
Construed in favor of the appellate division's findings, the evidence showed that while employed by Delta Pride as a construction worker in the Central American nation of Belize, McCarty contracted malaria. McCarty and two other workers prepared and loaded equipment into a van in Georgia, drove the van belonging to Delta Pride from Georgia to Belize, and then remained for six weeks to install irrigation pipes and equipment on a banana plantation. While still in Belize, McCarty first began to experience symptoms of what was subsequently diagnosed as malaria: fever, chills, diarrhea, and lower backache. After returning to Georgia, McCarty was hospitalized for treatment of malaria.
Delta Pride controverted McCarty's efforts to obtain workers' compensation benefits. Among its reasons for refusing to pay McCarty's medical bills, Delta Pride argued that malaria is not an "occupational disease" within the meaning of the workers' compensation statute, that McCarty was a farm laborer exempt from the Workers' Compensation Act, and that he performed all his work outside of Georgia.
1. Coverage for an occupational disease is available only if a claimant can satisfy certain conditions. By statutory definition, occupational diseases are "those diseases which arise out of and in the course of the particular trade, occupation, process, or employment in which the employee is exposed to such disease. . . ." In addition to satisfying the standard "arising out of" and "in the course of employment" requirements, the victim of an occupational disease must also prove five essential elements:
(A) A direct causal connection between the conditions under which the work is performed and the disease; (B) That the disease followed as a natural incident of exposure by reason of the employment; (C) That the disease is not of a character to which the employee may have had substantial exposure outside of the employment; (D) That the disease is not an ordinary disease of life to which the general public is exposed; (E) That the disease must appear to have had its origin in a risk connected with the employment and to have flowed from that source as a natural consequence.
At the hearing, the administrative law judge admitted the deposition of McCarty's treating physician, Peter Wrobel, M. D. Dr. Wrobel testified that malaria is an infectious disease that essentially has been eradicated from the United States but still occurs in Central America, Asia, and Africa. Dr. Wrobel attested to a causal connection between McCarty's work in Belize and the onset of the disease. He also testified that malaria is not considered a disease of life to which the general public in Georgia would be exposed. Ultimately, the administrative law judge ("ALJ") decided that McCarty failed to prove the latter four conditions, (B) through (D). The ALJ concluded that McCarty did not sustain a compensable occupational disease and found that Delta Pride was not liable for the payment of any benefits.
The appellate division, however, modified and amended that award, ultimately reaching the opposite result. The appellate division decided that a "preponderance of the competent and credible evidence not support paragraphs 16 through 20," and struck those portions of the award entered by the ALJ. The appellate division then substituted its own explicit findings pertaining to subsections (B) through (E) of OCGA ยง 34-9-280 (2) and determined that McCarty met all of the statutory requirements. The appella
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