Court Opinion

ID: 9847182
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 03:55:18.512955+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:02.589882
License: Public Domain

Judge Greene
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I disagree with the majority on the issue of whether the defendant should be given a credit to reflect the five percent disability the claimant possessed prior to the compensable injury. In Weaver v. Swedish Imports Maintenance, Inc., 319 N.C. 243, 253-54, 354 S.E.2d 477, 484 (1987), our Supreme Court clearly held that awards must be apportioned “to reflect the extent to which claimant’s permanent total disability was caused by the compensable” injury. In fact, compensation under the Workers’ Compensation Act of North Carolina is appropriate only in those situations where the disability is “caused, accelerated, or aggravated” by the compen-sable injury. See Pitman v. Feldspar Corp., 87 N.C. App. 208, 215, 360 S.E.2d 696, 700 (1987), rev. denied, 321 N.C. 474, 364 S.E.2d 924 (1988). As the Commission in this case failed to determine what portion if any of the claimant’s disability was a result of the five percent disability the claimant possessed prior to the com-pensable injury, I would remand to the Commission for a determina*466tion of whether the disability claimant suffers was indeed entirely caused by- the compensable injury or whether any portion of the disability was a consequence of disabilities to the claimant’s back that existed prior to the claimant’s compensable injury. Pitman, 87 N.C. App. at 216, 360 S.E.2d at 700.