Press "Enter" to skip to content

Supreme Court rules in favor of extending worker’s compensation

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.- The Missouri Supreme Court ruled unanimously Tuesday in the affirmative on the Greer v. Sysco Food Services case, which could have serious implications in worker’s compensation law.

The Greer decision found that the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission was justified in granting temporary total disability (TTD) benefits for a surgery Carl Greer, a forklift operator for Sysco, received in June 2010 after getting his ankle crushed in a forklift accident at work in 2006.

Sysco argued that the temporary nature of Greer’s recovery was temporary and that the decision by the commission to grant an additional period of TTD benefits was unwarranted because Greer had already shown maximum medical improvement despite the fact that, according to himself and numerous doctors, he still suffered from the injury (even though the Court also held the injury was not as serious as he made it out to be in a separate appeal filed by Greer) and that he was still involved in the rehabilitative process.

“It is plausible, and likely probable, that the maximum medical improvement date and the end of the rehabilitative process will coincide, thus, marking the end of the period when TTD benefits can be awarded,” Judge George W. Draper III wrote the 7-0 decision. “However, when the commission is presented with evidence, as here, that a claimant has reached maximum medical improvement yet seeks additional treatment beyond that date for the work-related injury in an attempt to restore himself or herself to a condition of health or normal activity by a process of medical rehabilitation, the commission must make a factual determination as to whether the additional treatment was part of the rehabilitative process…

“[T]his Court holds the commission is not required to accept maximum medical improvement as a bright-line date to terminate TTD benefits when there is substantial and competent evidence presented that a claimant continues to be engaged in the rehabilitative process beyond a date initially believed to be the end of the rehabilitative process. Cases that hold to contrary should no longer be followed.”

That ruling essentially means the maximum medical improvement should no longer be the final litmus test to determine the end of the rehabilitative process undergone by workers suffering from injury or disability. Draper clarified that it could still be used as a guideline.

Mehan
Mehan

The Court also found the commission was also justified in granting Greer benefits for future medical care related to his work injury because it ruled the law dictated an employer must provide an employee with the medical treatment reasonably required to cure or attempt to alleviate the effects of the injury.

However, Daniel P. Mehan, president and CEO of the Missouri Chamber of Commerce and Industry, strongly rebuked the decision of the Supreme Court and promised legislative action in the coming session.

“This ruling should send shivers down the spines of Missouri employers,” Mehan said in a statement. “Temporary disability payments are capped at 400 weeks for extreme cases and the Supreme Court has given a roadmap for claimants and trial attorneys to maximize those awards – even after a worker has recovered the best he or she can.

“Businesses have long worked through the state’s existing system to ensure a fair resolution is reached. The Greer v. Sysco Food Services case could make that resolution a thing of the past and fundamentally alter the concept of temporary disability. We will urge the Missouri Legislature to clarify the law to keep temporary disability payments as they should be—temporary.”