Elizabeth A. Wilson v. Worthco, Inc., et al

This workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel of the Supreme Court in accordance with Tenn. Code Ann. _ 5-6-225(e)(3) for hearing and reporting to the Supreme Court of findings of fact and conclusions of law. The trial judge found the plaintiff had suffered a compensable injury and entered a judgment in her favor of 5 percent vocational impairment to the body as a whole. The defendant raises the following issues: I. Whether the trial court erred in rejecting Defendant's Motion to Dismiss on grounds that the statute of limitations had expired prior to the filing of Plaintiff's claim. II. Whether the trial court erred in finding that Plaintiff's alleged injury was compensable and not a non-compensable aggravation of a pre-existing condition. III. Whether the trial court erred in finding that the Plaintiff sustained a fifty percent (5%) permanent partial disability to the body as a whole. We affirm the judgment of the trial court. Review of the findings of fact made by the trial court is de novo upon the record of the trial court, accompanied by a presumption of the correctness of the findings, unless the preponderance of the evidence is otherwise. Tenn. Code Ann. _ 5-6-225(e)(2); Stone v. City of McMinnville, 896 S.W.2d 548, 55 (Tenn. 1995). The application of this standard requires this Court to weigh in more depth the factual findings and conclusions of the trial court in a workers' compensation case. See Corcoran v. Foster Auto GMC, Inc., 746 S.W.2d 452, 456 (Tenn. 1988).