Court Opinion

ID: 9846482
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:42:02.592861+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:19:34.497430
License: Public Domain

Chief Judge Morris
dissenting:
*57I do not disagree with the statement of the majority that “[i]f the worker’s incapacity to work is total and if that incapacity to work is occasioned by a compensable injury or disease, the worker’s incapacity to work cannot be apportioned to other pre-existing or latent illnesses or infirmities, nor may the entitlement to compensation be diminished for such condition.” (Emphasis supplied.) Nor do I disagree with the holdings of the cases cited as supportive authority. I simply do not think the statement and the case have any applicability to the case before us.
In Mabe v. Granite Corp., 15 N.C. App. 253, 189 S.E. 2d 804 (1972), the only case cited by the majority dealing with occupational disease, and the case closest to the one sub judice, this Court did affirm an order to the Industrial Commission awarding total disability benefits upon a finding of total incapacity for work because of silicosis. There the employee had worked as a stone cutter for the defendant for some 30 to 35 years. He terminated his employment with defendant in 1968 and thereafter filed a claim against defendant for compensation because of disability caused by silicosis. Medical testimony established that he was 40% disabled for employment “in his previous or any other occupation.” His testimony was that he had not held regular employment since he quit working for defendant because, “due to a shortness of breath and a lack of strength, he can no longer perform hard labor.” He had only a fifth grade education, could read a little, but could not “write much”, and didn’t “know nothing but hard labor” and could not get “a job like that.” We said:
Defendant contends that elements of age and poor education are factors which are beyond the control of an employer and cannot be considered in determining an employee’s disability. The answer to this is that an employer accepts an employee as he is. If a compensable injury precipitates a latent physical condition, such as heart disease, cancer, back weakness and the like, the entire disability is compensable and no attempt is made to weigh the relative contribution of the accident and the pre-existing condition. 2 Larson, Workmen’s Compensation Law, § 59.20, p. 88.109.
*58By the same token, if an industrial disease renders an employee actually incapacitated to earn any wages, the employer may not ask that a portion of the disability be charged to the employee’s advanced age and poor learning on the grounds that if it were not for these factors he might still retain some earning capacity. (Emphasis supplied.)
15 N.C. App. at 256, 189 S.E. 2d at 807. In Mabe, the Court was not faced with the question now before us. There was no additional disease or physical condition totally unrelated to the employment which contributed in large measure to the incapacity. Here the majority of claimant’s disability is due to factors other than her employment. In the mid sixties she went to Duke Hospital, “but not for a breathing problem.” She was told she had bronchitis. She worked until 24 April 1975. She smoked about a pack and one-half of cigarettes a day. Along about 1967 she had a “a vein stripping in her leg” done at Duke Hospital. She did not recover as expected and had to return to the hospital, at which time it was discovered that she had diabetes. The doctors would tell her to stop smoking and she would stop and then start back and continued to smoke to the date of hearing. In addition to the phlebitis and severe venous deficiency in her lower extremities, diabetes, and bronchitis, claimant had had other illnesses, some involving surgical procedures. She had undergone a hysterectomy because of the presence of fibroid tumors in the womb. She had had tumors removed from both breasts and in 1953 had had cancer diagnosed. She had also had diagnosed left ventribular enlargement with a systolic ejection murmur.
Dr. Sieker testified that only 50 to 60 percent of her disability was due to cotton dust, and the rest was due to factors totally unrelated to employment. Dr. Battigelli testified that the percentage of her disability due to her employment was from 0 to 20 percent, “quite miniscule, if not negligible”. These two medical experts clearly testified that claimant’s incapacity resulting from occupational disease is not total. It is also clear that all of the evidence clearly showed that claimant did not actually become incapacitated because of byssinosis. When the General Assembly amended the Worker’s Compensation Act to include specified occupational diseases, it did not, by so doing, *59remove the requirement that compensation is payable only where there is causal connection between injury and employment. See Duncan v. City of Charlotte, 234 N.C. 86, 66 S.E. 2d 22 (1951).
In my opinion, the Worker’s Compensation Act is not intended to require that employers provide general health insurance for employees whose disability stems from causes other than causes connected with and resulting from employment. This would be the result of the majority non-apportionment rule. See dissent by Clark, Judge, in Pruitt v. Knight Publishing Co., 27 N.C. App. 254, 218 S.E. 2d 876 (1975), reversed on other grounds, 289 N.C. 254, 221 S.E. 2d 355 (1976). Nor do I think Mabe requires the result reached by the majority. It seems clear that G.S. 97-29 and G.S. 97-30 mandate that benefits are to be provided only for incapacity “resulting from the injury.” This the full Commission did. Its facts are supported by the evidence and the facts found support the conclusions and the award.
I agree with the full Commission that claimant be compensated only for that portion of her disability which is related to and results from her employment.