Court Opinion

ID: 9819474
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-01 06:26:08.967721+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:26:47.951536
License: Public Domain

PRESIDING JUSTICE McCULLOUGH, specially concurring: I agree with the majority in its position that the better practice to determine average weekly wage where there are two jobs is by looking at each job separately by the method appropriate to that job and then add the two averages together to determine the average weekly wage. I also believe it is important to stress the finding of the majority that creating a more workable framework is the province of the legislature and not for the courts. I write this special concurrence to point out that the Commission did, in its wisdom, have substantial evidence presented with respect to the claimant’s employment history. The Commission found that the evidence regarding the claimant’s employment history was uncontradicted and that he had worked since he was 16 years old, consistently working more than one job at a time and more specifically in the five years preceding the accident he continued to consistently work at two or more jobs, concurrently working 95 to 100 hours per week. Based upon the claimant’s testimony, along with that of Wesley Mason and rehabilitation counselors John Stephen Dolan and Sherry Anderson, the Commission found that the claimant worked continuously full time for the respondent from 1989 to 1992, when he obtained full employment with Norfolk and Southern Railroad, where he has worked continuously since that time. The Commission also found that while he was working for respondent from 1989 to 1992 and prior to bis going to work for the railroad, he also worked for a tree service and continued to work at that tree service at least intermittently since the beginning of employment with the railroad up to the time of the accident herein. The evidence further showed that at times from 1992 to 1998 he had concurrent employment with three employers, being the railroad, respondent and Homer’s. There was also evidence that he worked for another lawn service, Walker’s Lawn Service, earning $7 per hour, and had begun that work in May 1998. Determining which formula in section 10 as to average weekly wage should be used is difficult in many cases. We should defer to the Commission in its determination of the weekly average wage if we can find it consistent with the provisions of section 10. Justice O’Malley joins in this special concurrence.