Case Name: McCARTY FARMS, INC., a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc., a Self-Insured, Appellant, v. CAPRICE BANKS, Appellee
Court: Mississippi Court of Appeals
Jurisdiction: Mississippi
Decision Date: 2000-06-13
Citations: 773 So. 2d 380
Docket Number: No. 1999-WC-00701-COA
Parties: McCARTY FARMS, INC., a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc., a Self-Insured, Appellant, v. CAPRICE BANKS, Appellee.
Judges: Before SOUTHWICK, P.J., BRIDGES, and IRVING, JJ.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 773
Pages: 380–394

Head Matter:
McCARTY FARMS, INC., a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Tyson Foods, Inc., a Self-Insured, Appellant, v. CAPRICE BANKS, Appellee.
No. 1999-WC-00701-COA.
Court of Appeals of Mississippi.
June 13, 2000.
Rehearing Denied Dec. 12, 2000.
Leland S. Smith, III, Jackson, Attorney for Appellant.
Roger K. Doolittle, Floyd E. Doolittle, Jackson, Attorneys for Appellee.
Before SOUTHWICK, P.J., BRIDGES, and IRVING, JJ.

Opinion:
BRIDGES, J.,
for the Court:
¶ 1. Caprice Banks sustained an injury while in the course and scope of her employment with McCarty Farms, Inc. a wholly owned subsidiary of Tyson Foods. The Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) ordered Tyson Foods to pay Banks permanent partial disability benefits for the industrial loss of the use of her right arm for 140 weeks, permanent partial disability benefits for the industrial loss of the use of her left arm for 60 weeks, all medical services and supplies required by the nature of Banks's injuries, and a 10% penalty on any untimely paid installments of compensation. The Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission (Commission) affirmed the ALJ's findings. The Circuit Court of Hinds County affirmed the Commission. On appeal to this Court, Tyson Foods presents the following issues:
I. THE COMMISSION'S DENIAL OF THE EMPLOYER AND CARRIER'S MOTION TO SUPPLEMENT WAS AN ABUSE OF DISCRETION WHEN THE ADDITIONAL EVIDENCE WAS CRUCIAL REGARDING THE CLAIMANT'S LOSS OF WAGE EARNING CAPACITY.
II. THE FINDINGS OF THE COMMISSION THAT THE CLAIMANT SUFFERED A 70% INDUSTRIAL LOSS OF USE OF HER RIGHT UPPER EXTREMITY AND A 30% INDUSTRIAL LOSS OF USE OF HER LEFT UPPER EXTREMITY IS NOT SUPPORTED BY THE SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.
A. THE FINDING OF 70% AND 30% INDUSTRIAL LOSS OF USE IN THIS CASE IS CLEARLY CONTRARY TO THE PURPOSE UNDERLYING THE MISSISSIPPI WORKERS' COMPENSATION ACT, SPECIFICALLY, TO THE DEFINITION OF DISABILITY WHICH CONTROLS AN AWARD OF BENEFITS UNDER THE ACT.
B. THE CLAIMANT'S DISABILITY SHOULD BE LIMITED TO 15% AND' 5% FUNCTIONAL IMPAIRMENT ABSENT A SHOWING BY THE CLAIMANT OF A LOSS OF WAGE EARNING CAPACITY IN THE SAME OR OTHER EMPLOYMENT AS A RESULT OF THE WORK RELATED INJURY.
C. THE RECENT DECISIONS OF APPEALS FURTHER DEMONSTRATE THAT THE FINDING BY THE MISSISSIPPI WORKERS' COMPENSATION FULL COMMISSION IN THIS CASE CANNOT STAND.
III. ABSENT THE ADMISSION OF THE CLAIMANT'S POST INJURY WAGE EARNINGS, THE SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE FAILS TO SUPPORT THE FULL COMMISSION'S AWARD.
Finding no error, we affirm.
FACTS
¶ 2. On August 19, 1993, Tyson Foods employed Banks as a poultry processor. She performed different jobs at the employer's plant, including working on the KFC line, pulling fat, working on the win-gett wheel, cleaning live chickens, grading paws, and labeling boxes. On March 15, 1995, she was hanging live chickens. The chickens were alive, and she used both hands to hang them on a shackle. These chickens weighed between five and eight pounds. She was required to use both hands to hang thirty-two birds per minute. Banks had been hanging chickens for approximately nine months prior to the date of her injury. Her starting salary was $7.20 per hour, and she was still making that same hourly wage at the time of her injury. Including overtime, she worked from forty to fifty hours a week. On March 15, 1995, Banks injured her right hand, arm and shoulder, and her left hand. She reported the injury to her supervisor and to the company nurse.
II3. Banks was treated for bilateral hand pain by orthopedic surgeon Dr. Aubrey Lucas from December 4, 1995 to September 15, 1996 when she reached maximum medical improvement with a 15% permanent impairment to her dominant right arm and a 5% permanent impairment to her left arm. Lucas restricted Banks to lighter work than hanging chickens, including any work involving knives or scissors. Banks contacted Tyson Foods after she was released by Lucas. In October 1996, because the job as chicken hanger aggravated her symptoms, Tyson Foods reemployed her to line boxes, and grading paws three or four times when she was caught up with her work in the box department. She performed this job until December 1996, when the employer placed her on leave of absence. Banks testified that other, less senior employees were still lining boxes when she left.
¶ 4. Banks testified that she contacted Tyson Foods every week, then every month, and then every other month regarding her prospects for reemployment. She also testified that she went to the plant ten to fifteen times between December 1996 and August 1997, the month of the evidentiary hearing, seeking reemployment. Banks testified that the personnel manager, Debra Porter, told her that the employer had no job openings. She testified that she could label boxes for two to four hours, but that she could not perform any of the other previous jobs she had held with Tyson Foods. She did not seek other work until July 1997 because she believed that Tyson Foods would reemploy her when a job became available.
¶ 5. Although Banks had also had experience as a cashier, she testified that she could not perform this job because it required the repetitive use of her arms and hands. Banks unsuccessfully sought work at approximately forty different places besides Tyson Foods. The prospective employers were aware of her impairment and disability because she indicated as such on her applications. Some of the prospective employers interviewed her, and she disclosed that she was looking for light duty work that she could perform within the doctor's restrictions.
¶ 6. Banks testified that she was currently able to do some housework but that she cannot cut meat, lift heavy pans, and that she cannot lift her three-year-old son. She testified that she still had hand pain, that Lucas gave her a prescription for pain medication when she last saw him on July 29, 1997, and that she had a return appointment.
¶ 7. Deborah Porter, personnel manager at Tyson Foods, was called as a witness for the employer. Porter stated that her duties involved hiring, recruiting, and placing people. Porter testified that Banks was the least senior member in the box lining department in December 1996, and that she was placed on a leave of absence at that time due to the elimination of several positions. She stated that she looked for another job for claimant between January 1997 and August 1997, and that the employer's vocational expert, Connie Cha-pin, did not contact her regarding Banks's prospects for reemployment at the plant during this time. Porter testified that Tyson Foods generally hired between eighty and ninety people a month.
¶ 8. Porter testified that Tyson Foods currently had a job for Banks which was a combination of two different jobs, paw grader and box labeler. As a paw grader, Banks would grade between forty to fifty paws a minute that traveled along a conveyor belt. Porter testified that she would perform this job for approximately six hours a day and then Banks would rotate and place labels on boxes for another two hours. Porter testified that Banks could begin the job at the time of the hearing, but at a lower pay scale of $6.85 and chicken hangers at that time earned $7.55 an hour.
¶ 9. On cross-examination Porter testified that Banks was performing a box lining job in December 1996 when she was placed on leave of absence. Before placing anyone on leave of absence, an employee's seniority was considered. Porter explained that when Banks was asked to leave Sherylynn Flowers was still performing the box lining job but was kept because of her seniority.
¶ 10. Connie Chapin was called as a witness for Tyson Foods. Chapin testified that she was a vocation case manager and her job was vocational rehabilitation counseling. She was retained by Tyson Foods on January 30, 1997 to find employment for Banks. Chapin contacted Banks through her attorney several times in February 1997; however, Banks's attorney declined Chapin's services.
¶ 11. Chapin concluded that Banks was employable and identified six employers in the Jackson area who were currently accepting applications for current openings. These included restaurants needing a fast food worker or cashier and one job was for a front desk clerk. Four of the jobs paid $4.75 an hour, one paid $5.15 an hour, and another paid $5.45. Chapin testified that she did not believe the work of a cashier at a fast food restaurant on County Line Road during lunch would involve the repetitive use of Banks's hands.
¶ 12. On rebuttal, Banks called Elisha Levitt, a labor representative for Tyson Foods. Levitt, stated he kept seniority lists of employees that he received from Tyson Foods. He testified that Sherylynn Flowers, the person who was kept when Banks was put on leave of absence at Tyson Foods and was performing substantially similar work, was hired on August 3, 1994. Banks was hired on August 8, 1993.
¶ 13. The records of Banks's treating orthopedic surgeon, Dr. Lucas, showed that he first saw Banks on December 4, 1995. Prior to her visiting Lucas, Banks saw neurologist Dr. Don Carpenter who performed nerve conduction studies which showed mild to moderate right carpal tunnel and very mild left carpal tunnel syndrome. Banks told Lucas that her pain had decreased since she started making boxes as opposed to hanging chickens. She requested splints so she could continue to work.
¶ 14. On December 18, 1995, Banks continued to experience right hand pain, but she wanted to continue making boxes and defer surgery.
¶ 15. On January 8, 1996, Banks complained of continued pain in the palm of her right hand and wrist which radiated to the elbows and sometimes caused her fingers to go numb. The problems on the left hand were less severe. Lucas noted that her options were avoiding factory work, splinting, and surgery.
¶ 16. On January 30,1996, Banks reported her symptoms were about the same as they had been in her previous visit. She mainly complained of pain in her right wrist. She wanted to continue working and did not want surgery. Lucas gave her a note to return to work, and he scheduled her for a follow-up examination in three weeks.
¶ 17. Banks continued seeing Lucas throughout February and March 1996, when she reported that she had increased symptoms on the left side and then later her condition was unchanged. Lucas noted that "her employer did not let her return to work with previous note," so Lucas gave Banks another return work form. He noted that she had elected to return to lighter work than what she had done before.
¶ 18. On April 25, 1996, Lucas noted Banks had surgery on a finger for a non-work related injury. She had lacerated her right little finger and had to have the tendon and nerve repaired by Dr. Blevins. Banks related to Lucas that she had yet to be provided any lighter work by Tyson Foods as they discussed in February and March 1996. Lucas noted in his records that there was nothing he could do until Banks recovered from the tendon surgery, and she was instructed to return in two months.
¶ 19. Banks missed her June 24, 1996 appointment; however, she was seen again on July 23, 1996 for a re-check. Lucas noted Banks was having problems with both upper extremities. Banks had weakness of the thenar muscles on her right side with some atrophy. The left side was strong. Lucas diagnosed persistent carpal tunnel. Lucas noted that Banks was requesting to return to work at some lighter activity, such as lining boxes. Lucas advised Banks to limit repetitive work and to give some serious consideration to the carpal tunnel release on the right muscles. As Banks wanted to return to work lining boxes, Lucas wrote a note allowing her to perform that work.
¶ 20. On July 31, 1996, Lucas wrote Banks's counsel a letter assessing a 15% permanent medical impairment to the right upper extremity and a 5% permanent medical impairment to the left upper extremity. He identified her restrictions as "no knives, no scissors. Work needs to be lighter than hanging chickens. Lining boxes is okay."
¶ 21. Lucas's records showed he conferred with counsel for Banks and counsel for Tyson Foods on July 21, 1997. During the conference a videotape was shown of several jobs including labeling boxes, lining boxes, pulling tenders, and grading feet. Lucas concluded that the tender pulling job presented a high risk of aggravating her carpal tunnel syndrome based on the amount of repetition and force required. He stated that, generally, an acceptable position would involve rotation among two or three positions, excluding the pulling of tenders. Lucas asked for additional information regarding the accurate rate per minute, per hour and per day required to perform the other jobs. Counsel for Tyson Foods provided the information requested by Lucas on August 13, 1997. On August 14,1997, Lucas wrote an addendum approving the job of box labeling which could be performed one to two hours a day. He also approved the job of grading feet.
¶ 22. Banks returned to work at Tyson Foods on August 23, 1997, after the hearing conducted by the ALJ. On February 13, 1998, Tyson Foods submitted a motion to supplement the record with Banks's earnings history since the hearing before the ALJ. This motion was denied by the Commission.
LEGAL ANALYSIS
STANDARD OF REVIEW
¶23. The standard for appellate review of compensation claims is narrow at best. It is well settled that "[t]he Commission is the ultimate fact-finder." Hardin's Bakeries v. Dependent of Harrell, 566 So.2d 1261, 1264 (Miss.1990). "Accordingly, the Commission may accept or reject an administrative judge's findings." Id. Our review is limited to a "determination of whether or not the decision of the commission is supported by the substantial evidence." Delta CMI v. Speck, 586 So.2d 768, 772-73 (Miss.1991). "This Court will overturn a [CJommission decision only for an error of law or an unsupportable findings of fact." Cook v. President Casino, 740 So.2d 963(¶ 16) (Miss.Ct.App.1999) (citation omitted).
DISCUSSION
¶24. We address all of Tyson Food's issues together as these issues are, to some extent, intertwined. In entertaining Tyson Food's assertion that the Commission erred in not allowing a supplementation of the record with Banks's post-injury wage earning capacity, we must consider whether wage earning capacity is a consideration necessary for determining permanent partial disability benefits for the industrial loss of the use of a scheduled member.
¶ 25. Our workers's compensation statutes guarantee a measure of compensation to an injured worker who suffers a permanent impairment to a scheduled member as the result of a work-related injury. See Miss.Code Ann. § 71-3-17(c) (Rev.1995). An arm is a scheduled member as contemplated by this statute. See Miss.Code Ann. § 71—3—17(c)(1) (Rev. 1995).
¶ 26. Mississippi jurisprudence "shows that an employee suffering an injury to a scheduled member that results in a permanent partial disability to that member is entitled to the greater amount of compensation determined under two alternate theories of computation." Hollings-worth v. I.C. Isaacs and Co., 725 So.2d 251(¶ 10) (Miss.Ct.App.1998). "First, a determination of functional disability of the member must be made.... " Id. Then the derivative mathematical formula for "the appropriate level of compensation] [is] computed by multiplying the percentage of disability times the maximum number of weeks for the scheduled member times sixty-six and two-thirds percent (66 2/3%) of the employee's average weekly wage." Id. (citing Stuart Mfg. Co. v. Walker, 313 So.2d 574, 575 (Miss.1975)). "Then, alternatively, an industrial disability must be determined that is based, not just on the medical evidence, but upon' evidence of how the limited function of the member affects the employee's ability to perform those duties normally associated with the claimant's job." Hollingsworth, 725 So.2d at (¶ 10) (citations omitted).
¶ 27. "Generally, 'medical' disability is the equivalent of functional disability and relates to actual physical impairment. 'Industrial' disability is the functional or medical disability as it affects the claimant's ability to perform the duties of employment." Walker Mfg. Co. v. Butler, 740 So.2d 315(¶ 44) (Miss.Ct.App.1998) (quoting Robinson v. Packard Elec. Div., General Motors Corp., 523 So.2d 329, 331 (Miss.1988)).
The question in these cases is the degree of loss of use of the member for wage earning purposes, and this issue is for determination from the evidence as a whole, including medical estimates related either to the functional or industrial loss and the testimony of the claimant and other lay witnesses as to the effect of the injury upon the employee's ability to perform the duties required of him in his usual employment. In this connection, a partial loss of functional use may result in total disability, and to reach this result it is not necessary that the employee be wholly incapacitated to perform any duty incident to his usual employment or business; but if he is prevented by his injury from doing the substantial acts required of him in his usual occupation, or if his resulting condition is such that common care and prudence require that he cease work, he is totally disabled within the meaning of the statute.
Walker Mfg. Co., 740 So.2d at (¶ 45) (quoting Vardaman S. Dunn, Mississippi Workmen's Compensation § 86 (3d ed.1990)).
¶ 28. An injured worker is entitled to compensation based upon the higher computation of either the worker's functional or medical loss of use or industrial loss of use "but limited in all events, by the maximum compensation allowed under Section 71-3-17(c) for the injured member." Hollingsworth, 725 So.2d at (¶ 10) (citing Smith v. Jackson Constr. Co., 607 So.2d 1119, 1128 (Miss.1992)).
¶ 29. "The Commission acts as fact finder in making determinations of the level of disability." Hollingsworth, 725 So.2d at (¶ 11) (citation omitted). "[I]t is not within the realm of a reviewing court's authority to re-weigh the evidence to determine whether the preponderance of evidence might favor a result contrary to the Commission's determination." Id. So long as the record contains credible evidence which, if believed, would support the Commission's determination, we must affirm. Walker Mfg. Co. v. Cantrell, 577 So.2d 1243, 1247 (Miss.1991).
¶ 30. The Commission found that Banks proved an industrial loss of use of the right arm of seventy percent and an industrial loss of the use of her left arm of thirty percent. The Commission, affirming the ALJ, presumably predicated its decision on Dr. Lucas's restrictions and limitations that he placed on Banks and her inability to perform the typical duties of her usual employment. There is substantial evidence, both medical and lay testimony, that went uncontradicted that supports the proposition that Banks's injuries had a great impact on her ability to perform the typical duties of her employment as a poultry processor. Therefore, there is no basis for this Court to disturb the Commission's findings.
¶ 31. Since we are determining that the Commission did not err in this matter, we determine that the Commission was also correct in not allowing a supplementation of the record with regard to Banks's post-injury wage earnings.
¶ 32. "The Workers' Compensation Act 'arbitrarily schedules the compensation payable for loss of or loss of use of a scheduled member, focusing upon a claimant's functional loss and without regard to a loss of wage earning capacity.' " Cook, 740 So.2d at (¶ 27) (quoting Jackson Constr., 607 So.2d at 1126). "Certainly, this point can be stated no more concisely...." Cook, 740 So.2d at (¶27). "Because the [arm] is a scheduled member, no account is taken as to the claimant's loss of wage earning capacity." Id. at (IT 28) (emphasis added).
¶ 33. The determination for permanent partial disability benefits for the industrial loss of the use of a scheduled member does not encompass an identification of wage earning capacity, but rather a determination of functional loss of use presented by medical evidence, and the impact that the loss of function has on the worker's ability to perform the normal and customary duties associated with the claimant's usual employment. Jackson Constr., 607 So.2d at 1128. That is presumably what the Commission did in this instance. We find no error in the Commission's determination that Tyson Foods should not be allowed to supplement the record.
¶ 34. THE JUDGMENT OF THE HINDS COUNTY CIRCUIT COURT IS AFFIRMED. STATUTORY DAMAGES AND INTEREST ARE AWARDED. ALL COSTS OF THIS APPEAL ARE ASSESSED TO THE APPELLANT.
KING, P.J., IRVING, LEE, PAYNE, AND THOMAS, JJ., CONCUR.
SOUTHWICK, P.J., CONCURS WITH SEPARATE WRITTEN OPINION JOINED BY McMILLIN, C.J., AND MOORE, J.