CHARLESTON – An Appalachian Power Co. employee lost his appeal of a workers' compensation ruling that denied him permanent total disability consideration, according to a March 10 decision from the state Supreme Court.
On Oct. 5, 2015, the Worker’s Compensation Board of Review reversed a March 2015 order of the Worker’s Compensation Office of Judges. The Office of Judges’ ruling had sent Thomas L. Cooper’s claim back to self-insured Appalachian Power for further evaluation of Cooper’s medical condition.
“The Board of Review concluded that Mr. Cooper could not meet the statutory threshold of 50 percent whole body medical impairment necessary for permanent total disability consideration and reinstated the claims administrator’s May 21, 2014, order denying Mr. Cooper an award of permanent total disability benefits,” the appeals court said in its decision.
The appeals court said it found that the board made no error in its ruling.
According to the appeals court decision, Copper was injured multiple times in his 38 years as an Appalachian Power employee, including an amputation of several fingers that occurred in June 2008.
After the hand injury, Copper never came back to work. In an earlier Supreme Court of Appeals decision entered in December 2012, he received a 43 percent permanent partial disability award in connection with the finger amputation and another 10 percent permanent partial disability award related to the psychiatric issues that resulted from the injury.
Since his application for permanent total disability stated that he had previously been granted a total of 63 percent partial disability benefits, Cooper claimed that he met the legal criteria for permanent total disability status.
However, a doctor that examined Cooper found that he only had a 43 percent whole body impairment, and “a 5 percent whole body medical impairment under the American Medical Association’s Guides to the Evaluation of Permanent Impairment,” according to the appeals court ruling in connection with an alleged spinal injury. The doctor concluded that the lumbar spine issues resulted from pre-existing conditions.
Another medical evaluation was ordered after the Office of Judges ruled that the doctor’s report was “flawed and not credible.”
Appalachian Power appealed the Office of Judges’ order for a new evaluation, and the board ruled in the company’s favor.