Issue

Temporary total disability payments—"total loss of wage-earning capacity”—plain language analysis—capacity for any type of work

Summary

On discretionary review of a workers' compensation case, the Supreme Court modified a Court of Appeals decision by rejecting its interpretation of the plain language of N.C.G.S. § 97-29(c)–which ends, in most cases, temporary total disability payments after 500 weeks unless an employee has sustained a "total loss of wage-earning capacity"–instead holding that the quoted portion of the provision, both as originally drafted and after subsequent amendments that emphasized the legislature's intent, refers to the total loss of an employee's personal capacity to earn wages in any type of employment and, thus, does not share a meaning with "total disability" as that term of art is used in workers' compensation case law. However, the Court affirmed the lower appellate court's ultimate holding–which in turn affirmed the Industrial Commission's conclusions of law–that the employee, despite ongoing back pain that was sometimes severe enough to prevent him from working at all, was nevertheless capable of some part-time work and thus was subject to the cessation of temporary total disability payments after 500 weeks.

Summary from the North Carolina Reports digest (official subject index). Read the opinion →