Court Opinion

ID: 9615816
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 04:40:54.711629+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:03:52.328468
License: Public Domain

HOWE, Justice:
(concurring).
I concur with the understanding that nothing in the majority opinion precludes the claimant from seeking permanent total disability benefits if his impairment prevents him from returning to work as a carpenter or to do other meaningful work. The medical panel rated the plaintiff’s disability at 15% on the basis of their opinion that he should be “able to do carpentry work below the level of his shoulders.” Other expert opinion was adduced that the claimant was employable but may have to be retrained in a new line of work. If these predictions prove to be erroneous, as the claimant so stoutly maintains, it would seem that he would be entitled to apply for a higher percentage of permanent partial benefits or perhaps even permanent total benefits. However, as the majority opinion correctly holds, he is not entitled to temporary total benefits after his medical condition stabilized.
The claimant complains of a gap in time between the termination of temporary benefits and the commencement of permanent benefits. In most cases coming before this Court, there has been no such gap and our statutes do not contemplate that there should necessarily be any gap. Gaps usually occur when the entitlement to permanent benefits is contested by the employer or his insurer, and a hearing must be held to determine the claimant’s eligibility for permanent benefits.