UPDATE: Sturdivant v. NC Dept. of Public Safety - Extended Benefits pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-29(c)
By: Melissa P. Woodard
On April 18, 2023, the North Carolina Court of Appeals re-filed an opinion in Sturdivant v. N.C. Department of Public Safety. The Court amended a prior misstatement regarding the members of the three-judge panel that heard and decided the case, added a dissent from Judge Hampson, which was not included in the prior decision, and amended the opinion in some notable regards.
The March 21, 2023, slip opinion lists Judge Dillon, who authored the majority opinion, Judge Stroud, who concurred in result only, and Judge Gore, who does not appear to have voted on the decision. The April 18, 2023, slip opinion has replaced Judge Gore for Judge Hampson, who dissented in part and concurred in part.
On December 13, 2024, The Supreme Court of North Carolina published a decision modifying and affirming the Court of Appeals’ opinion. The Supreme Court opinion is critical of the lower court’s method of statutory interpretation whereby it undertook to define “total loss of wage-earning capacity” as indistinguishable from “total disability” under the Workers’ Compensation Act. The Supreme Court was clear that the plain meaning of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-29(c) and legislative intent point to the two phrases having distinct meanings for injured workers and employers/carriers in the state of North Carolina.
Thankfully, our North Carolina Legislature acted quickly after the April 18, 2023, opinion was published to correct the issue and clarify the language of the statute to avoid any future misinterpretation in other claims. The appellees attempted to argue that the appeal to the Supreme Court was therefore moot, but this argument was overruled by the court in that the lower court opinion still applied to the plaintiff himself, and if the Supreme Court had rejected the appellant’s arguments, plaintiff would have received a remand to the Commission, which still presented an existing controversy. The Court further utilized the recent legislative clarification to bolster the argument that the original legislative intent was to define “total loss of wage-earning capacity” as the Commission originally interpreted: “an employee’s complete or utter loss of the ability to earn any wages by working.” Sturdivant v. N.C. Dep’t of Pub. Safety, ___ N.C. ___, ___ (2024).
The practical outcome of this decision is limited in light of the legislature’s action to amend N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-29(c) to include clarification, but the additional guidance on statutory interpretation for the Workers’ Compensation Act is informative. The Supreme Court has given the Court of Appeals, the Commission, attorneys practicing workers’ compensation, employers, carriers, and injured workers important context into how it will view statutory construction, which is to stick closely to the plain and unambiguous language of the statute’s text just as the Commission did initially in this claim. The Court is clearly in favor of keeping the simple things simple, a principle for which we can all be thankful.
If you have any questions about the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act, please contact us at Lewis & Roberts, and we will be glad to assist you.