White v. Nantucket Industries
White v. Nantucket Industries
Opinion of the Court
Claimant injured her wrist while working for employer , and was
Citing Aden’s Minit Market v. Landon, 202 Ga. App. 219 (413 SE2d 738) (1991) and Evco Plastics v. Burton, 200 Ga. App. 121 (407 SE2d 60) (1991), employer argued that claimant bore the burden of proving that her post-fall inability to earn her pre-injury wage was caused by her work-related wrist injury; and the superior court based its affirmance on claimant’s failure to meet that burden. However, Landon and Burton only place this burden on the claimant when the claimant asserts a change in condition (i.e., the claimant is seeking a resumption of benefits after a period in which she was not entitled to them). In this case, it is now undisputed that claimant’s disability was caused by her work-related injury up until her fall, so she was entitled to disability benefits until then. Thus, it was the employer rather than claimant who sought to show a change of condition, and the employer rather than claimant who bore the burden of proof on causation. See Johnson Controls v. McNeil, 211 Ga. App. 783, 785-786 (1) (440 SE2d 528) (1994).
In McNeil, we held that where it could not be determined from the evidence whether an initially disabling injury continued to be disabling, the employer had failed to meet its burden of proving a change in condition, and the claimant’s disability benefits should have continued. As in McNeil, the record here does not show how long the disability caused by the covered wrist injury continued.
Judgment reversed.
Although claimant was unable to continue her job as a sitter after her fall, she does not suggest that her disability benefits should have increased from partial to total as a result of that accident; she simply argues that employer’s obligation to pay partial disability benefits at the same rate as before the fall continued despite the unrelated injury.
Employer contends claimant admitted at the hearing that her disability after the fall was caused by the fall, but a review of the cited testimony reveals that claimant testified that
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.