Court rules insurer cannot cap award on woman who left post after injury
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The Supreme Court of Tennessee on Wednesday reversed a trial court decision that capped a church child care attendant’s workers compensation award after she left her post following two back-to-back injuries.
Vicki Gandee fell down a flight of stairs in 2004 while working as an assistant children’s director with Christ United Methodist Church, injuring her knee. Months later, after returning to work, she aggravated her injury after slipping and falling, according to documents in Vicki Gandee v. Zurich North America Insurance Co.
Ms. Gandee ultimately left her job in April 2006 before reaching maximum medical improvement, filing a claim against the church’s comp insurer Zurich North America, maintaining she failed to make a meaningful return to work, seeking permanent partial disability benefits at six times the impairment rating.
The parties disputed whether Ms. Gandee was “terminated for misconduct or resigned due to her injury,” records state. A state trial court found the claim compensable but capped the award at two and one-half times the impairment rating, having concluded Ms. Gandee was terminated for misconduct, stemming from her allegedly cashing insurance company checks she was supposed to turn over to the church, according to court records.
She appealed, claiming the trial court “erred in finding she was terminated for misconduct… in applying the lower cap” and “in adopting Insurer's expert's impairment rating,” records state.
The appeal was referred to the state Supreme Court’s Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel in Jackson, Tennessee, which affirmed the trial court's decision to adopt the impairment rating yet reversed the trial court's decision to cap the award based on misconduct and remand for modification of the award.
Officials with Zurich could not immediately be reached for comment.
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