Carolyn King v. Tecumseh Products Company

This workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel of the Supreme Court in accordance with Tenn. Code Ann. _ 5-6-225(e)(3) for hearing and reporting to the Supreme Court of findings of fact and conclusions of law. Review of the findings of fact made by the trial court is de novo upon the record of the trial court, accompanied by a presumption of the correctness of the findings, unless the preponderance of the evidence is otherwise. Tenn. Code Ann. _ 5-6- 225(e)(2). Stone v. City of McMinnville, 896 S.W.2d 548, 55 (Tenn. 1995). The application of this standard requires this Court to weigh in more depth the factual findings and conclusions of the trial court in a workers' compensation case. See Corcoran v. Foster Auto GMC, Inc., 746 S.W.2d 452, 456 (Tenn. 1988). The trial court found that the employee had sustained 3 percent permanent partial disability to the right upper extremity and twenty percent permanent partial disability to the body as a whole for psychological injury. The employer appeals, and argues that the trial court erred by awarding excessive benefits for the scheduled member, by awarding any benefits for the mental condition, and by by ordering additional temporary total benefits. We affirm the judgment of the trial court except insofar as it provides for two awards of permanent partial disability rather than one. On that issue, we remand the case to the trial court for a finding of permanent partial disability in accordance with the limitations set forth in T.C.A. _ 5-6-27(3)(c).