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King v. Tecumseh Products Co.3/8/2000
AFFIRMEDin part; REVERSED in part; and REMANDED
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. § 50-6-225(e)(3) for hearing and reporting to the Supreme Court of findings of fact and conclusions of law.
Review of the findings of fact made by the trial court is de novo upon the record of the trial court, accompanied by a presumption of the correctness of the findings, unless the preponderance of the evidence is otherwise. Tenn. Code Ann. § 50-6-225(e)(2). Stone v. City of McMinnville, 896 S.W.2d 548, 550 (Tenn. 1995). The application of this standard requires this Court to weigh in more depth the factual findings and conclusions of the trial court in a workers' compensation case. See Corcoran v. Foster Auto GMC, Inc., 746 S.W.2d 452, 456 (Tenn. 1988). The trial court found that the employee had sustained 30 percent permanent partial disability to the right upper extremity and twenty percent permanent partial disability to the body as a whole for psychological injury.
The employer appeals, and argues that the trial court erred by awarding excessive benefits for the scheduled member, by awarding any benefits for the mental condition, and by by ordering additional temporary total benefits.
We affirm the judgment of the trial court except insofar as it provides for two awards of permanent partial disability rather than one. On that issue, we remand the case to the trial court for a finding of permanent partial disability in accordance with the limitations set forth in T.C.A. § 50-6-207(3)(c).
FACTS
The plaintiff is 47 years of age and has ten years of formal education. Her work experience has primarily involved factory assembly; she has worked at a sewing factory, at a Tupperware factory, and assembling motors for this employer. Her post-injury job involves truck driving for an express courier company.
She testified that her hands began hurting and swelling on March 5, 1996 at work, where her duties involved twisting and turning, picking up heavy motors, and handling as many as 2,700 motors each day. She initially saw Dr. Crane of the Jackson Clinic in Trenton, who referred her to Dr. Torstrick of the Jackson Clinic in Jackson. Dr. Torstrick administered cortisone injections to her left arm and provided her with splints. She also received physical therapy. When a nerve conduction study showed mild right carpal tunnel syndrome, he performed surgical right carpal tunnel release on July 5, 1996. He opined that she had reached maximum medical improvement as of March 3, 1997, and assessed five percent permanent partial disability to the right upper extremity under the AMA Guidelines. He referred her to Dr. Elias King Bond, psychiatrist, because she was anxious and upset, and complained that she was being asked to perform tasks at work that she was not able to do because of problems with her hands.
Dr. Bond diagnosed depression, which he believed pre-existed but was aggravated by her work injury. He testified that she suffers from sleep disturbance, a high level of anxiety, a sense of poor self-esteem, a sense that she could not function, and pain accentuated by depression or anxiety. He opined she would require psychotherapy and medication for at least six to twelve months and that she had a permanent impairment from her mental condition of seven percent to the body as a whole under the AMA Guidelines.
Plaintiff testified that she began experiencing depression following her surgery because she could not go outside, her hands were hurting, and "they couldn't do any
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