Opinion ID: 1835416
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 7

Heading: sherard's total disability

Text: The Fund alleges that the Workers' Compensation Court erred in finding that Sherard is totally disabled. Under the Nebraska Workers' Compensation Act, an employee's disability as a basis for compensation is determined by the employee's diminution of employability or impairment of earning power or earning capacity, and is not necessarily determined by a physician's evaluation and assessment of the employee's loss of bodily function. Heiliger v. Walters & Heiliger Electric, Inc., 236 Neb. 459, 470, 461 N.W.2d 565, 573 (1990). See § 48-121. In relation to total disability under § 48-121(1) and disability partial in character under § 48-121(2), temporary and permanent refer to the duration of disability, while total and partial refer to the degree or extent of the diminished employability or impairment of earning power or earning capacity. As Professor Arthur Larson observes: [T]otal disability may be found in the case of workers who, while not altogether incapacitated for work, are so handicapped that they will not be employed regularly in any well-known branch of the labor market. The essence of the test is the probable dependability with which claimant can sell his services in a competitive labor market, undistorted by such factors as business booms, sympathy of a particular employer or friends, temporary good luck, or the superhuman efforts of the claimant to rise above his crippling handicaps. 2 A. Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 57.51(a) at 10-164.68, 164.68(18) (1989). Heiliger, supra at 470-71, 461 N.W.2d at 573-74. An employee who is injured to the extent that the employee cannot perform services other than those which are so limited in quality, dependability, or quantity that a reasonably stable market for the services is nonexistent may be classified as totally disabled. Lee v. Minneapolis Street Railway Co., 230 Minn. 315, 41 N.W.2d 433 (1950). Also, according to Professor Arthur Larson, Compensable disability is generally defined as inability, as the result of a work-connected injury, to perform or obtain work suitable to claimant's qualifications and training. 2 A. Larson, The Law of Workmen's Compensation § 57.22(a) at 10-129 (1989). Hence, the test for a worker's employability after a compensable injury is whether the worker can compete in the open and normal labor market for the worker's services. Whether a claimant has sustained disability which is total or partial and which is temporary or permanent is a question of fact. Parker v. St. Elizabeth Comm. Health Ctr., 226 Neb. 526, 412 N.W.2d 469 (1987); Ceco Corp. v. Crocker, 216 Neb. 692, 345 N.W.2d 20 (1984). Restatement of all the evidence bearing on the question of Sherard's disability or her loss of earning capacity would serve no useful purpose. Suffice it to say, the evidence supports the compensation court's finding concerning Sherard's disability, its degree, and duration under the circumstances.