Court Opinion

ID: 9854934
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:17:12.913454+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:36.822650
License: Public Domain

BRYANT, Judge,
dissenting in part.
I dissent from the portion of the majority opinion relating to whether the concept of MMI is material to Issue # 3. That issue on appeal is whether, once the employee has established loss of wage earning capacity pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-29 or N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-30, the employee may continue to receive temporary total disability after having reached maximum medical improvement. In two prior decisions of this Court, we addressed this issue. In Anderson v. Gulistan Carpet, Inc., 144 N.C. App. 661, 550 S.E.2d 237 (2001), a panel of this Court answered that issue, “no”; however, in another opinion filed on the same day as Anderson, a different panel in Russos v. Wheaton Industries, 145 N.C. App. 164, 551 S.E.2d 456, disc. review denied, 355 N.C. 214, 560 S.E.2d 135 (2001) answered, “yes”. No appeal was taken by the parties from the Anderson decision; and, our Supreme Court declined to grant discretionary review of the Russos decision.
Manifestly, a conflict of panels on this Court requires a decision from our Supreme Court. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 7A-30(2). Accordingly, I dissent from the majority decision for the reasons stated in Anderson and thereby afford the defendants the opportunity to appeal this issue directly to the Supreme Court to obtain a definitive opinion.