JOHN PEARSON
v.
MEMPHIS LIGHT GAS & WATER DIVISION
No. W2020-00462-SC-WCM-WC
Supreme Court of Tennessee Special Workers’ Compensation Appeals Panel, Atmemphis
March 24, 2021
Mailed
December 17, 2020
Session
September 29, 2020
Appeal
from Court of Workers’ Compensation Claims No.
2017-08-1117 Deana C. Seymour, Judge
Plaintiff-Appellant
John Pearson appeals the decision of the Court of
Workers’ Compensation declining to award him benefits
for a spinal cord injury allegedly sustained during the
course and scope of his employment. The trial court held that
Mr. Pearson’s claim was barred by the applicable
statute of limitations and, alternatively, that he had failed
to prove that his job installing streetlights was the actual
and proximate cause of his injury. The appeal has been
referred to the Special Workers’ Compensation Appeals
Panel for a hearing and a report of findings of fact and
conclusions of law pursuant to Tennessee Supreme Court Rule
51. Because we conclude that Mr. Pearson filed his petition
more than one year after he discovered his injury, the
statute of limitations bars his claim. We therefore affirm
the judgment of the trial court.
Tenn.
Code Ann. § 50-6-225(a) (2014 & Supp. 2017) Appeal
as of Right; Judgment of the Court of Workers’
Compensation Affirmed
Robert
E. Lee Davies, Sr. J., delivered the opinion of the court, in
which Holly Kirby J. and Don R. Ash, Sr. J., joined.
Steve
Taylor, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellant, John Pearson
Sean
Antone Hunt, Memphis, Tennessee, for the appellee, Memphis
Light, Gas, & Water Division
OPINION
ROBERT
E. LEE DAVIES, SENIOR JUDGE
Factual
and Procedural Background
Plaintiff-Appellant
John Pearson, age sixty-one, had been employed by
Defendant-Appellee Memphis Light, Gas &Water Division
(MLGW) for fourteen years at the time he filed his initial
petition for workers’ compensation benefits. At MLGW,
Mr. Pearson drove a bucket truck throughout the city in order
to repair and install streetlights which generally weighed
between twenty-five and sixty pounds each. Mr. Pearson
testified at trial that he installed approximately sixteen
lights per day. Installing these streetlights required Mr.
Pearson to lift and put a large mechanical arm into place to
secure the streetlight, then replace an existing bulb. He
testified that this often led him to “lift, bend, and
twist on a daily basis.”
In
March 2014, Mr. Pearson first saw Dr. Glenn Crosby to address
myelopathy that was causing his right leg to drag when he
walked. After reviewing a previous MRI, Dr. Crosby determined
that Mr. Pearson was suffering from “severe spondylosis
at C4-5 with spinal cord compression and hyperintense lesion
within the cervical cord itself[;] myelomalacia.” Dr.
Crosby recommended a cervical fusion at the affected
vertebrae “to take the pressure off the spinal cord and
prevent the myelopathic process from worsening.” Mr.
Pearson successfully underwent surgery on April 9, 2014, and
his symptoms subsequently abated.[1]
In
early 2016, Mr. Pearson began to experience problems that
resembled those precipitating his earlier surgery. He
testified at trial that he began having “pain, some
tingling and numbness on the left side” and that these
symptoms would surface intermittently before subsiding. Mr.
Pearson testified that on one particular day, he was bowling
and began to experience such severe symptoms that he thought
he was having a stroke and went to the emergency room. After
being informed this was not the case, Mr. Pearson visited Dr.
Mohammed Assaf and reported that he began experiencing these
symptoms after both “lifting around forty pounds”
and bowling. Dr. Assaf diagnosed Mr. Pearson with
“cervical disk disease with radiculopathy,”
ordered an MRI, and referred him to Dr. Crosby for further
evaluation.
Mr...
