Employee Being Laid Off Does Not Prevent Finding of Disability

Robin Martinek

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Barbara Shuford, a former employee of Regal Manufacturing Company, injured her knee in a work-related accident. The injury resulted in a medial meniscus tear. While the claim was held to be compensable by the North Carolina Industrial Commission, the employer and carrier appealed the Commission's holdings to the North Carolina Court of Appeals.

After her injury, Ms. Shuford was laid off when the employer's plant closed. While the Defendants argued that the lay off was the cause of her loss of income, the Commission found that Ms. Shuford, through her unsuccessful job search, had shown that she was incapable of returning to her pre-injury wages.

In a recent but unpublished opinion, the North Carolina Court of Appeals upheld the Industrial Commission's ruling and stated:

[Ms. Shuford] established she was incapable of earning pre-injury wages by reasonably, although unsuccessfully, attempting to obtain employment

Shuford v. Regional Manufacturing Company.

This holding reinforces a previous 2007 holding of the Court that found that

[although] the immediate cause of the loss of [employee's] wages . . . may have been the lay-off, that fact does not preclude a finding of disability.

Britt v. Gator Wood, Inc.