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TTD benefits end when workers are cleared to return to work: Miss. high court

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The Mississippi Supreme Court has ruled that temporary total disability workers compensation benefits end for injured workers when they are cleared to return to their previous employment, even if they haven't reached maximum medical improvement.

Despite this finding, however, the high court found in Levon Flowers v. Crown Cork & Seal USA Inc. that the employer's refusal to bring the injured worker back on the job meant his TTD benefits should have continued since the denial prevented the claimant from returning to his prior wage-earning capacity.

Levon Flowers worked as a mechanic for Philadelphia-based Crown Cork & Seal and was required to stand and walk on a concrete floor for 12-hour shifts, court records show. In October 2007, Mr. Flowers was diagnosed with a ganglion cyst and bone spur in his foot, and his doctor advised him to take a six-week absence from work.

Mr. Flowers took four weeks off, but asked to return to work against the doctor's advice, records show. A second doctor who treated Mr. Flowers fitted him with a custom orthotic brace in January 2008 and said Mr. Flowers could work without restrictions if he wore the brace.

The second doctor said that Mr. Flowers had not reached maximum medical improvement when he went back to work but hoped the brace would help his condition, records show.

Another doctor who subsequently performed an independent medical examination on behalf of Crown found that his medical impairment made it unsafe for him to return to work at Crown, records show. Therefore, the company decided not to reinstate or rehire Mr. Flowers despite being cleared by the doctor who recommended the brace.

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Mr. Flowers filed for workers comp benefits, and an administrative law judge found that he was eligible for TTD benefits from September 2007 to January 2008, the date that he was cleared by his doctor to return to work, records show. The judge did not award permanent total disability payments to Mr. Flowers because his own doctors had not assigned an impairment rating for his foot injury.

The judge's decision was affirmed by the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission and the Panola County, Miss., Circuit Court, records show. Mr. Flowers appealed to the Mississippi Court of Appeals, arguing that he was entitled to continue receiving TTD benefits for his foot injury because he had not yet reached maximum medical improvement.

The appellate court sided with Mr. Flowers, finding he could receive TTD benefits until he reached maximum medical improvement, records show. The case was remanded to the workers comp commission to determine when Mr. Flowers reached maximum medical improvement and whether he was eligible for PTD benefits after that time.

Crown appealed in 2013 to the Mississippi Supreme Court.

The state high court unanimously ruled Thursday that workers' eligibility for TTD benefits typically should end when workers are released by a doctor to return to their previous job — even if they have not reached maximum medical improvement.

“The date a claimant reaches (maximum medical improvement) certainly may coincide with the date he or she is cleared to return to work, but this will not always be the case,” the ruling reads. “If a claimant has not yet reached (maximum medical improvement) but is able to return to his or her usual employment during the recovery process, then he or she is no longer suffering a loss of wage-earning capacity, and disability benefits should not continue.”

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However, the high court found that such precedent didn't apply in Mr. Flowers' case because Crown's doctor determined that he wasn't cleared to return to work. Therefore, the court found that Mr. Flowers should have continued receiving TTD benefits until the date it was determined that he had reached maximum medical improvement.

“We find that … Flowers's attempted return to work did not signal the end of his temporary total disability, as it is clear that he was unable to return to his usual occupation,” the ruling reads.

The court noted that workers who return to work in a lesser wage-earning capacity, rather than the job they performed prior to being injured, continue to be eligible for TTD benefits. That's because such workers have not reached the end of a healing period that concludes with a return to prior work or a maximum medical improvement determination, the court found.

The case was remanded to the Mississippi comp commission to determine when Mr. Flowers reached maximum medical improvement and the amount of his TTD benefit award.

The high court also ruled that the commission should determine if Mr. Flowers was eligible for PTD benefits after reaching maximum medical improvement.