Opinion ID: 1946280
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Trial and Appellate Court Awards Complained Of

Text: The trial court based its award on the one eye loss provision as modified by the partial loss provision, granting plaintiff compensation of twenty percent of the average weekly wage for one hundred weeks. Plaintiff's impairment of each eye is less than twenty percent, but minimum compensation is fixed by law at twenty percent of the average weekly wage. La.R.S. 23:1202. The court of appeal increased the duration of the compensation to 200 weeks, reasoning that the compensable period for impairment of one eye must be doubled when both eyes are permanently injured. In his application to this court, plaintiff contends that the courts below erred in not allowing recovery for permanent total disability under the both eyes loss provision as reduced proportionately under the partial loss provision. Plaintiff argues that because he suffered a loss of use of both eyes he should receive twenty percent of the average weekly wage for the duration of his permanent impairment, or, in effect, for life.