Opinion ID: 3150549
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: Compensation for Total Incapacity

Text: Code § 65.2-500(A) governs compensation in cases of total incapacity, and states in relevant part that: when the incapacity for work resulting from the injury is total, the employer shall pay, or cause to be paid, as hereinafter provided, to the injured employee during such total incapacity, a weekly compensation equal to 66 2/3 percent of his average weekly wages, with a minimum not less than 25 percent and a maximum of not more than 100 percent of the average weekly wage of the Commonwealth as defined herein. The plain language of this statute provides that employers “shall pay . . . during such total incapacity” two-thirds of the injured worker’s weekly earnings. Therefore, Code § 65.2-500 applies to totally disabled workers who have lost the capacity to earn wages. 4 Past decisions of our Court, the Court of Appeals, and the Commission indicate that loss of earning capacity is the proper test for awarding compensation in total disability cases. In J.A. Foust Coal Co. v. Messer, 195 Va. 762, 766, 80 S.E.2d 533, 535 (1954), we held that total disability compensation under Code § 65.2-500’s predecessor “cover[s] losses occasioned by the impairment of the claimant’s earning capacity.” Likewise the Court of Appeals has held that compensation under Code § 65.2-500 “requires only proof of pre-injury average weekly wage and a showing of total disability.” Bay Concrete Constr. Co. v. Davis, 43 Va. App. 528, 540, 600 S.E.2d 144, 150 (2004). An injured worker bears the burden of proving that an industrial accident caused his injury and disability. See Marshall Erdman & Assocs. v. Loehr, 24 Va. App. 670, 679, 485 S.E.2d 145, 149-50 (1997). Yet once the worker meets the burden of proving total incapacity, as McKellar did in this case, the burden shifts to the employer to show that the employee’s disability is not total. See Clay v. Transcontinental Gas Pipeline, VWC File No. 177-42, slip op. at 2 (Sept. 3, 1999) (holding that an employee who suffered a total incapacity had no obligation to look for work). The Commission consistently awards temporary total disability benefits in cases where the injured worker retires or resigns. See Browder, 71 O.I.C. at 292 (holding that the resignation of a 66-year-old cook “should not preclude an award of compensation for total disability.”); see also Burlington Indus., Inc. v. Golda, 2000 Va. App. LEXIS 595 (Va. Ct. App. Aug. 15, 2000) (unpublished) (holding that “voluntary retirement from the employer does not remove or diminish [claimant’s] ability to earn wages. However, being temporarily and totally disabled does prevent the claimant from earning wages.”); Clay, VWC File No. 177-42, slip op. at 2 5 (upholding award of benefits after explaining that “claimant’s total disability, not his retirement, removed him from the labor market.”). Injured workers who leave the workforce for reasons unrelated to their injuries are nonetheless entitled to temporary total disability compensation. In Kelly v. Elkins Energy Corp., 62 O.I.C. 270, 274 (1983), the Commission ordered that temporary total disability benefits resume for an injured coal miner who was laid off from selective employment. In another case, an injured worker received temporary total disability benefits despite being terminated from light duty due to her insubordination, tardiness, and rudeness to customers. See Potomac Edison Co. v. Cash, 18 Va. App. 629, 630, 446 S.E.2d 155, 156 (1994). Benefits for temporary total incapacity will continue to flow even where a claimant is incarcerated in federal prison. See Escobar v. L.M. Sandler & Sons, Inc., 68 O.I.C. 206 (1989); see also Baskerville v. Saunders Oil Co., 1 Va. App. 188, 193, 336 S.E.2d 512, 514-15 (1985) (Court of Appeals noting in dicta that benefits would still be available to an incarcerated claimant who suffered from a total incapacity). These cases reflect the principle that an injured worker’s status in the labor market is irrelevant where the worker’s incapacity is total. They illustrate why the loss of earning capacity test is the proper standard for awarding compensation in cases of total incapacity under Code § 65.2-500. As such, a retired worker whose work-related injury causes total incapacity need not produce evidence of a pre-injury intent to reenter the workforce.