Antoinette M. Bee v. Kanawha Hospice Care, Inc.

Summary

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed an 8% permanent partial disability award to Antoinette M. Bee for a compensable lumbar sprain. The court held that the independent medical evaluator properly applied the impairment guidelines in West Virginia Code of State Rules § 85-20-C and found no clear legal or factual error in the Board of Review’s decision.

Holdings

1. The award was proper because the medical evaluator followed the applicable impairment guidelines, classified Bee under lumbar category II, and reduced the assessed impairment to the range authorized by § 85-20-C.
2. The Board of Review's decision was not in clear violation of a constitutional or statutory provision, was not clearly the result of erroneous conclusions of law, and was not based on a material misstatement or mischaracterization of the evidentiary record.

Questions Presented

1. Whether the Board of Review properly affirmed an 8% permanent partial disability award based on the impairment-category limits in West Virginia Code of State Rules § 85-20-C.
2. Whether reliance on the impairment tables in West Virginia Code of State Rules § 85-20-C was improper because Bee's whole-person impairment assessment was higher than the awarded percentage.

Disposition

affirmed