Richard Dan Moorehead v. Ryder Integrated Logistics,

The defendant, Ryder Integrated Logistics, Inc., appeals the judgment of the Circuit Court of Davidson County, where the trial court allowed reconsideration of the plaintiff's industrial disability under Tennessee Code Annotated _ 5-6-241(a)(2) and awarded a sixty percent (6%) disability to the body as a whole with a credit for earlier payments made pursuant to the original settlement order between the parties filed in the Chancery Court of Davidson County. The defendant submits that the trial court erred: (1) by allowing the plaintiff a reconsideration of his earlier award when he had received in excess of the two and one-half (2 _) cap upon advice of former counsel; (2) by awarding additional disability benefits when the employee failed to establish disability to the extent of thirty-two and one-half (32.5%) percent he had already received; and (3) by awarding disability benefits of five (5) times the impairment rating without making specific findings of fact required by Tennessee Code Annotated _ 5-6-241(c). Under the recent ruling of the Tennessee Supreme Court in Freeman v. Marco Transportation Co., 27 S.W.3d 99 (Tenn. 2), in which the Court held that a request for reconsideration brought pursuant to Tennessee Code Annotated _ 5-6-241(a)(2) must be filed in the same court that exercised jurisdiction over the original workers' compensation claim, we do not reach the issues raised by the defendant and find that the judgment of the trial court should be reversed and the cause dismissed without prejudice. Under the savings statute, the plaintiff can refile his request for reconsideration in the Chancery Court of Davidson County within one year of the date of judgment that is the final deposition in this case.