West Virginia: Carpal Tunnel Claim Denied for Funeral Home Worker

The Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Board of Review that had denied workers’ compensation benefits to a funeral home apprentice director/embalmer who contended his carpal tunnel syndrome condition (“CTS”) was causally connected to repetitive duties in his employment. Repeating the familiar rule that it is up to the Board of Review, not the appellate courts, to weigh the evidence and make factual findings, the high court observed that the IME physician attributed the worker’s CTS to nonoccupational-risk factors in the form of excessive weight and hypothyroidism. The Court also noted that the Board found that the worker’s job duties did not fall in the high-risk categories for the development of CTS. Given the evidence of record, the Board’s determination was justified.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Davidson v. Blue Ridge Crematory, 2019 W. Va. LEXIS 502 (Nov. 1, 2019)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 130.05.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

Sign up for the free LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation enewsletter at www.lexisnexis.com/wcnews.