The Supreme Court of Kentucky on Thursday upheld a series of earlier rulings that awarded workers compensation benefits to a Ford Motor Co. plant worker who suffered injuries to her neck and spine as a result of repetitive-motion duties going back to 2007.

Deborah Duckworth began working for Ford Motor Co. in 1998 as an assembler at the Kentucky truck plant. She worked for 10 hours a day, five days each week. Beginning in 2007,  she began working in one department of the assembly plant that required her to “constantly bend her neck ‘up and under’” and “that her back was constantly slouched,” according to documents in Ford Motor Company v. Deborah Duckworth; John H. McCracken, administrative law judge; and Workers' Compensation Board, filed in Frankfort. 

Ms. Duckworth “testified that she would repeat this action approximately 300 times per day” and that she “began having pain and spasms in her neck and back but, despite these symptoms, she continued her” duties for several years, at times treated by the company doctor and going on temporary total disability in 2011.

Back on the job in 2012, Ms. Duckworth was struck on top of the head by a piece of equipment, worsening her neck pain. Several months later, she fell at work, which worsened her neck symptoms, according to documents.

During a subsequent medical evaluation, a doctor examined “Duckworth’s gait and tested her reflexes. He opined that something was wrong,” documents state. An MRI revealed the need for neck surgery, after which she “continued to have weakness in her lower extremities” and was referred for further examination of her lumbar spine, which resulted in back surgery.

Ms. Duckworth in her benefits form wrote that she suffered “work-related cumulative trauma injury to her back and neck in the course of working” since 2007, continuing “to work and perform the (same duties) and suffer cumulative trauma to her neck and back.”

“Thereafter Plaintiff worked multiple jobs that caused hastened cumulative trauma to her neck and culminating with worsened MRI findings” in 2013 and resulting in surgery, according to documents.

Ford filed a special answer to her workers compensation claim “alleging that Duckworth’s claims for injuries to her neck and back manifesting (in 2007) were barred by the statute of limitations,” which is two years from the time of injury.

The state Court of Appeals and an administrative law judge determined the date of injury is not barred, as she was not determined by medical professionals to have cumulative trauma until 2013.

Ford, in the latest appeal, argued that the administrative law judge “exceeded the scope of his authority and erred in determining the manifestation dates of Duckworth’s cumulative trauma neck and back injuries.”

The state’s highest court affirmed the earlier rulings, writing that the judge “has authority to determine the manifestation date for cumulative trauma injury and properly applied controlling law to the facts of this case in determining that Duckworth's claim was not time-barred.”

The court also wrote that state law “requires a claimant to file her claim by the later of either the manifestation date, i.e. the date a claimant is informed by a physician that her cumulative trauma injury is work-related, or the date of the last payment of income benefits.” The court wrote that she “satisfied this requirement by filing her claim within two years of …  2011, the last (temporary total disability) payment date.” Since she filed her claim in 2013, it was not time-barred by state law, and “the ALJ did not exceed his authority.”