South Carolina: Statement to Employer That Employee Was “Pretty Sore” Constituted Notice of Injury

Evidence that one day after moving tires, rims and heavy frame equipment while cleaning his employer’s shop, an auto body paint technician told the employer’s owner that he was “pretty sore” and he “must have hurt [himself],” was sufficient to constitute notice of injury under S.C. Code Ann. § 42–15–20, particularly where the Commission—after hearing the testimony of both parties—found the employee more credible than the business owner on the issue of notice. The state Supreme Court accordingly reversed a Court of Appeals decision that had ruled otherwise. The high court said that reasonable minds could have reached a different conclusion based on the record, but it was not for the appellate courts to engaged in fact-finding that disregarding the Commission’s own findings.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Hartzell v. Palmetto Collision, LLC, 2016 S.C. LEXIS 76 (Apr. 13, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 126.03.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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