Opinion ID: 1355481
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Gradually-Occurring Injuries are Accidental Injuries

Text: Tennessee's Workers' Compensation Act provides that accidental injuries arising out of and in the course and scope of employment are compensable. Tenn.Code Ann. § 50-6-103(a) (1999). We have long-recognized that gradually-occurring injuries are compensable as accidental injuries under the Act even though it is difficult, if not impossible, to link such injuries to a particular accident. Brown Shoe Co. v. Reed, 209 Tenn. 106, 350 S.W.2d 65, 69 (1961); see also Lawson v. Lear Seating Corp., 944 S.W.2d 340, 341 (Tenn.1997); Barker v. Home-Crest Corp., 805 S.W.2d 373, 375 (Tenn.1991). Carpal tunnel syndrome is compensable as a gradually-occurring accidental injury. See, e.g., Lawson, 944 S.W.2d at 341; Barker, 805 S.W.2d at 375. Since recognizing that gradually-occurring injuries are compensable under the Act, this Court has been presented several times with the problem of how to determine when such injuries occur. It is necessary to fix a date of injury in order to determine, for example, when the statute of limitations begins to run, what the employee's compensation rate should be, and, as in this case, which of two succeeding employers or insurance carriers must bear the liability for the employee's claim. We have held that for purposes of determining when the one-year statute of limitations begins to run, the date of a gradually-occurring injury is the date the employee becomes unable to work. Lawson, 944 S.W.2d at 343; Reed, 350 S.W.2d at 69-70. This last day worked rule operates to fix a date certain when the employee knows or should know that he or she sustained a work-related injury so that workers with gradual injuries will not lose the opportunity to bring claims. Bone v. Saturn Corp., 148 S.W.3d 69, 73 (Tenn.2004). We have also applied the last day worked rule to determine the question at issue in this case, i.e., which of two succeeding insurers or employers is liable for payment of a claim. In Barker, we held that because the employee's carpal tunnel syndrome grew progressively worse with new trauma... each day at work, the date of injury should be fixed as the date the employee was finally prevented from working. 805 S.W.2d at 376. We have recently clarified, however, that the last day worked rule does not apply when the employee provides actual notice of the injury to the employer, because [i]n that event, there is no question that the employee knows the work-related nature of his or her injury; thus there is no reason to use another date. Bone, 148 S.W.3d at 73-74.