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Brown v. Greenwood Mills10/24/2005
Heard October 12, 2005
AFFIRMED IN PART and REVERSED IN PART
The workers' compensation commission affirmed the order of the single commissioner awarding benefits to Edwin H. Brown (Brown) for an occupational lung disease, byssinosis, which Brown claims he developed from working with cotton for many years at Greenwood Mills, Inc. (Greenwood). The circuit court affirmed the commission's ruling that Brown's claim was within the statute of limitations, but declared the commission should have allocated a portion of Brown's disease to his long history of cigarette smoking, a non-compensable cause. Therefore, the circuit court remanded the case to the commission for allocation. Both parties appealed.
FACTUAL/PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Greenwood employed Brown from 1966 to 1982 and again from 1983 until 1998. As a Greenwood employee, Brown worked primarily with cotton in the carding, spinning, and preparation departments. While at work, he frequently was exposed to cotton dust. Brown, who smoked a pack of cigarettes a day for approximately forty-five years, stopped working in 1998 due to breathing problems.
Brown's respiratory difficulties started sometime around the early 1990s. At that time, Greenwood began performing two breathing tests a year on Brown in order to evaluate and monitor his breathing troubles. Although he quit smoking in February of 1995, Brown continued to suffer from shortness of breath, difficulty walking, and fatigue. In December 1997, Greenwood referred Brown to Dr. Cobb for treatment.
Dr. Cobb diagnosed Brown as having hyper-expanded lungs, a depressed diaphragm, and obstructive lung disease. Initially, Dr. Cobb opined that Brown's obstructive lung disease was "probably secondary to remote tobacco use with progressive airway obstruction." The doctor asseverated, "I do not think this is a specific reaction to his work environment." However, after additional testing showed Brown experienced drops "in his flow rates across the work shift," Dr. Cobb recommended that Greenwood remove Brown from work for three months to see if his absence from the job would ameliorate his condition. Brown's leave did improve his breathing. As Dr. Cobb wrote in his report of June 18, 1998:
Mr. Brown feels better. His exertional tolerance is slightly improved and he experiences less cough at the present time.
The majority of his disease is emphysema related to his previous tobacco use. . . . In addition to the emphysema from smoking, however, he does have a component of industrial related broncospasm. I think this is more likely a nonspecific bronchitis than true byssinosis, but in any event, his underlying disease is exacerbated and has shown documented improvement on a period away from work and my recommendation is that he be removed from the present work space.
Brown did not work for Greenwood after 1998.
On December 4, 2001, Brown was treated at a Veterans' Administration Clinic in Augusta, Georgia. There, for the first time, he was diagnosed with byssinosis. The report from the VA Clinic records:
Assessment:
Hypertension. Not controlled
Hx occupational exposure to cotton dust.44years. including carding and preparation.
Bysinnosis. hx chest tightness and pre and post shift changes in spirometry (reactivity) Hx industrial noise exposure Brown filed a Form 50 on February 14, 2002.
At the hearing, Greenwood presented the medical report of Dr. R. L. Galphin. Dr. Galphin believed Brown's disease "was most probably due to his long history of cigarette smoking, which may have been aggravated by exposure to respirab
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