Court Opinion

ID: 9654652
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:46:28.488611+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:12.279896
License: Public Domain

LEIBSON, Justice,
concurring.
I concur in result, but respectfully disagree with one facet of the Opinion.
Dr. K. Armand Fischer, a qualified orthopedic surgeon, testified to a 13% functional impairment applying the AMA Guides. The Board made no finding as to functional impairment and did not discuss this proof.
Even though the Board found no occupational disability, KRS 342.730(l)(b), as newly amended, imposes a statutory duty on the Board to consider functional impairment. This duty requires making a finding in this respect. The case is analogous to Jones v. Institute of Electronic Technology, Ky., 613 S.W.2d 420 (1981), where we held in similar circumstances that the Board had a duty to make a finding. In Jones, we stated that the Board was required to make a finding using the enumerated benefits schedule where there was an amputation of a portion of the digits on the claimant’s hand, even though it might then further find that there was no injury of appreciable proportions and no permanent partial disability.
On remand we should direct the Board to address this question and make a finding with regard to the evidence of functional impairment under the AMA Guides, and a further finding as to whether, considering this evidence, it does or does not find permanent partial disability.