Court Opinion

ID: 9772989
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 17:34:32.087501+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:49.603087
License: Public Domain

COMBS, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion.
As to the questions common to both appellants, I am of the opinion that KRS 342.730(l)(b) is violative of the due process and equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment to the federal constitution. This statute has since been repealed, presumably because of these defects. One of the most troublesome parts of the statute is the phrase "... after the employee becomes eligible for normal old age benefits ....” What is normal for one may not be normal for another. Workers are entitled to benefits at ages 62, 65, 70 and 72. If a worker was 65 and receiving old age benefits, he would not be entitled to further compensation benefits. But, until he reaches that age and is receiving benefits, he would be entitled to benefits under the Act.
As to appellant Oglesby, I would reverse and remand the case to the Board with directions that the Board consider the medical reports filed with his Form 11, as is required by KRS 342.316(2)(b) and (7), together with the presumption as well as the provisions of KRS 342.230(3). It is not intended that the Board shall be bound by the conclusions and the diagnoses contained in the reports but that the reports should be considered by them, together with other evidence in arriving at their conclusions. If these reports are entitled to evidentiary value in an uncontested case, certainly they do not lose all of the value when the claim is contested.
Furthermore, the case of Young v. Daniels, Ky., 481 S.W.2d 295 (1972), does not hold that they were entitled to no weight. It merely held that an award could not be based upon reports alone.
I would reverse the case of appellant Brooks and remand it to the Board with directions to enter an award of total and permanent disability benefits, for the additional reason that the Board’s failure to find him totally and permanently disabled is clearly erroneous. It is true that appel*794lant had some neck problems back in the early 70’s. There is absolutely no evidence that this interfered in any way with his ability to perform his work which was rather heavy, arduous type of labor. Functional impairments and disability are not synonymous terms.
KRS 342.620(11) clearly mandates the criteria for determining disability. Applying the evidence in this case to that statute, one inescapably arrives at the conclusion that appellant Brooks is totally and permanently disabled.