Salem: Panel Adopts Appeals Board’s Opinion in TDD Case| Employees Compensation Information

By Jane Salem

Thursday, April 15, 2021 | 0

The Tennessee Supreme Court issued an order denying review of a case in which an Appellate Board of Appeal had generally accepted an appeal board opinion.

Jane Salem

The High Court’s per curiam order means the Boutros panel’s decision against Amazon.com DEDC LLC is final.

In that case, Nesreen Boutros suffered a work-related injury to her neck, right arm and shoulder in April 2015 while working as a package handler for Amazon. The case was heard in October 2019. According to this, the trial judge has given approximately $ 30,000 in the past for temporary disability benefits.

Amazon appealed to the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board, which upheld it.

In ordering temporary disability benefits, the lower court relied on the opinion of the licensed attending physician on a Form C-30A. The form took Boutros off work from the date of the violation through January 2, 2018.

Amazon argued that the authorized attending physician’s opinions were not credible because he “did not have the information necessary to determine whether restrictions were appropriate”. The board disagreed, arguing that the doctor’s records, including the final medical report forms, were offered by Amazon as evidence, which relied on it to support its defense.

The board wrote: “It is inappropriate for a party to offer medical records as evidence and rely on certain parts of the records and then argue that the rest of the records are not credible.”

The board was also not convinced by arguments that Boutros did not comply with the treatment. That argument has not been properly brought forward in court.

But even if it had, the board said Boutros had issued explanations for refusing certain treatments that the lower court deemed appropriate. The board saw no reason to interfere with this statement.

Jane Salem is an attorney at the Tennessee Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims in Nashville. This entry is republished with the permission of the court blog.