Angela N. Bilbrey v. American Nat'L. Bank & Trust Co.

This workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel of the Supreme Court in accordance with Tenn. Code Ann. section 5-6-225(e)(3) for hearing and reporting of findings of fact and conclusions of law. The appellant contends the evidence preponderates against the chancellor's findings that the employee's permanent mental and physical injuries arose out of and in the course of her employment. As discussed below, the panel has concluded the judgment should be affirmed. At the time of the trial, the employee or claimant, Angela Bilbrey, was fifty years old. She has a high school education and attended a business school for two years. She has served in the United States Navy, where she received some technical training. She has worked for American National Bank, now SunTrust, since 1979 as a collector or account adjuster. In April of 1987, she went to Sierra-Tuscon, an alcohol and drug dependency center, where she was treated for emotional problems related to her family situation and her difficulty coping with them. There is some history of mental dysfunction in her family and there is evidence she was mistreated by her mother and that her former husband is a recovering alcoholic. She told a psychologist at Sierra- Tuscon she wanted "to know why I am unhappy a lot." She worked on the third floor of her employer's building. On June 29, 1993, she and another employee entered an elevator on the third floor to go to the lobby floor. The elevator fell from the third floor to some distance below the lobby floor, before stopping suddenly. She remained "stuck" in the elevator for approximately half an hour until she could be removed by other persons. Following the injury, she complained of shoulder pain and, after receiving emergency care at East Ridge Hospital, she was referred by the employer to Dr. George Seiters, a licensed and board certified orthopedic surgeon practicing in Chattanooga. Dr. Seiters diagnosed a cervical sprain, left rotator cuff tendinitis with mild impingement syndrome and possible bursitis in the left shoulder, all of which he treated conservatively. When her shoulder pain and loss of motion persisted, he injected her shoulder with six milligrams of cortisone on October 2