Mississippi Workers Compensation Accidents or Injuries – Can You Get Permanent Total Disability Benefits For a Scheduled Member Injury?

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Mississippi Workers Compensation Accidents or Injuries – Can You Get Permanent Total Disability Benefits For a Scheduled Member Injury?

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Mississippi Workers Compensation Accidents or Injuries – Can You Get Permanent Total Disability Benefits For a Scheduled Member Injury?

by Jay Foster, Mississippi Workers Compensation Lawyer

This article assumes that you have a basic understanding of what a scheduled member injury is which is discussed in other articles on our website.

The answer to whether an injured worker in Mississippi can get permanent total disability benefits for a scheduled member injury is: it depends. It depends on a number of different factors. Recently, the Misssissippi Court of Appeals held that a scheduled member could be a permanent total disability case.

In Lott v. Hudspeth Center and Mississippi State Agencies Workers’ Compensation Trust, No. 2007-WC-01525-COA, the injured worker, Martha Lott, argued that the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission committed reversible error when it found that she was not entitled to permanent and total disability benefits under Mississippi Code Annotated section 71-3-17(a). The Claimant argued that she provied she made a good faith job search effort. Since she made this effort, the employer and carrier must prove that her job search efforts were a sham or not in good faith. The Claimant argued that the Commission misapplied the applicable Mississippi law. Since the Mississippi Workers’ Compensation Commission misapplied the law, the Claimant argued that the Court of Appeals should not defer to the Commission’s findings.

The Mississippi Court of Appeals cited a Mississippi Supreme Court which held that “[w]here an employee suffers an injury covered by the schedule in Section 71-3-17(c) and where that injury results in a permanent loss of wage[-]earning capacity within Section 71-3-17(a), the latter section controls exclusively and the employee is not limited to the number of weeks of compensation prescribed in Section 71-3-17(c)’s schedule.” Smith v. Jackson Constr. Co., 607 So. 2d 1119, 1128 (Miss. 1992).

As a result, the Mississippi Court of Appeals held that Lott was permanently and totally disabled even though she had only a scheduled member injury to her arm.

If you have questions about this or any other Mississippi Worker’s Compensation accident or injury, please call or email Jay Foster.

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