Two Employers: Each Liable For One Knee
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In a most unusual case, the North Carolina Industrial Commission has ruled that two employers are equally liable for a totally disabled employee. The reason? The employee injured his right knee while working for the defendant Jones Brothers, Inc. and later injured his left knee while working for the defendant GLF.
The employee initially injured his right knee on March 21, 2001 while working for Jones Brothers, Inc. He returned to Jones Brothers and worked floor duty without restrictions until he left work at Jones Brothers in April 2001.
In August 2001, the employee began working for the defendant GLF where he injured his left knee. The left knee injury was not caused by or contributed to by his prior right knee injury.
The worker required surgery on both knees, the left on October 9, 2003 and the right on April 14, 2004.
The surgeon who performed both knee surgeries testified that there was no difference in the claimant's restrictions in his left knee as compared to the restrictions in the right knee. The doctor also testified that the claimant's disability was equally caused by his left and right knees.
In ruling upon which employer was obligated to the injured employee for his inability to work, the North Carolina Industrial Commission determined that the fair thing to do would be to require both defendants to pay equally for the disability of the employee.
Even though the Industrial Commission found both employers equally liable, it did not require the employers to pay an equal amount to the injured worker. The reason? The employee eared higher wages at GLF than he earned when he worked at Jones Brothers. Accordingly, defendant Jones Brothers (who paid the lower wages) was required to pay one-half of $509.87 ($254.94) each week while the employee was out of work. The defendant GLF was required to pay the remaining weekly rate of $419.06. The result is that the total pay to the injured worker was his full weekly compensation rate of $674.00.
The Industrial Commission required Jones Brothers to pay for medical treatment to the claimant's right knee. The defendant GLF was required to pay for medical treatment for the injured employee's left knee.
The results of this case come as close to "splitting the baby in half" as any case we will likely see.
The outcome of this case was very logical. Each employer paid a portion of compensation benefits caused by the body part injured on their job. The amount of the payment was weighted in accordance with the relative average weekly wage earned by the employee.