Home Depot v. Pettigrew

The issue of whether the employee's back injury was compensable was not properly before the ALJ or the Appellate Division of the State Board of Workers' Compensation, since no evidence showed that the employee was on notice that her employer was contesting the compensability of that injury.

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We granted the Home Depot and its workers’ compensation servicing agent’s collectively, “Home Depot” application for discretionary appeal from the superior court’s order striking a factual finding in an ALJ’s compensation award. Because the superior court has authority only to affirm, reverse, or remand for further proceedings, it exceeded its authority by striking a portion of the award. For reasons that follow, we conclude that the superior court should have remanded the case to the State Board of Workers’ Compensation for a further evidentiary hearing. This case arose when Home Depot employee Joan Pettigrew twisted her ankle at work in 2003 and was treated with physical therapy and, eventually, surgery. In addition to her ankle injury, Pettigrew also began experiencing back problems which she and her treating physician attributed to the changes in her gait as a result of the ankle injury. Home Depot paid her workers’ compensation income benefits for temporary total disability. Subsequently, Pettigrew filed a request that her injury be designated as catastrophic. She attached the records from her treating physician who opined that she was incapable of any level of sustained work activity.

Following the hearing, the ALJ issued an order finding that Pettigrew’s ankle injury was catastrophic within the meaning of OCGA § 34-9-200.1 g 6. The ALJ further found, however, that Pettigrew’s back problems “are degenerative and not due to the twisted ankle accident or its sequelae.”

Home Depot v. Pettigrew

The issue of whether the employee's back injury was compensable was not properly before the ALJ or the Appellate Division of the State Board of Workers' Compensation, since no evidence showed that the employee was on notice that her employer was contesting the compensability of that injury.

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