Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, September 1, 1993 TAG: 9309010038
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: A-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BONNIE V. WINSTON STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: Medium
In a 2-1 decision released Tuesday, the commission granted Loretta Shelton, 23, compensation for all past and future medical expenses related to her injury, plus two-thirds of her salary for up to 500 weeks.
Shelton, whose medical bills have totaled more than $250,000 after six operations to surgically reattach her hand to her wrist, was tired but happy Tuesday.
"I was crying and laughing at the same time when I found out," Shelton said. "It was the most amazing feeling. I'm just hoping they won't appeal, that they'll say, `Let's leave this poor girl alone now.' "
Shelton, who hasn't regained full use of the hand, is entitled to about $13,000 in back pay, and roughly $768 monthly for the next eight years or until she returns to work, said her attorney, Peter Sweeny of Fairfax.
The company, Brown Products Inc. of Axton, tried to deny Shelton benefits by claiming she "willfully" neglected company safety rules by using her hand to adjust a cardboard pad that had been improperly loaded into a cutting machine. Brown Products has 30 days to appeal the commission's decision to the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Sweeny said he expects the company to continue battling Shelton's claim.
"What these companies spend on lawyers in these appeals is far less than what they would pay for her medical bills alone," Sweeny said. "Unfortunately, it becomes a matter of economics and the human side is lost."
Joseph Veith III, the attorney representing Brown Products and Zurich Insurance Co., said Tuesday they have not decided whether to appeal the ruling to the Virginia Court of Appeals.
Shelton's case has been highlighted by state labor groups warning that should she lose, employers around the state would be encouraged to contest claims by workers injured on the job.
Shelton, who had been laid off as an emergency medical technician in Martinsville, had been on the factory job only two weeks when the accident occurred May 8, 1992.
In testimony, she said she was improperly trained to use the bladed machine, designed to cut thick cardboard pads that protect furniture during shipping.
According to testimony, Shelton was told It's not the money. It's the fact they were telling people I intentionally cut off a part of my own body. Now the world knows I didn't. Loretta Shelton just before the accident to speed up her work. The supervisor training her had turned away and was not observing Shelton's work when the blade severed her hand, documents show.
Sweeny said the federal Occupational Safety and Health Administration fined Brown $400 shortly after the accident for failing to have the proper safety shield on the machine.
In April, a deputy commissioner hearing her case ruled Shelton was ineligible to collect benefits, concluding that she had violated company safety rules by putting her hand into the machine.
Two of the commission's three members rejected the argument that Shelton intentionally violated safety rules. They wrote that the company's spoken admonitions were not tantamount to other published safety rules.
One commissioner, Robert P. Joyner, thought otherwise.
In a dissenting opinion, Joyner said, "It is not reasonable to require an employer to adopt a specific written safety rule prohibiting every conceivable unsafe act."
Shelton, who needs three more operations to regain some use of her thumb, said she felt vindicated.
"It's not the money. It's the fact they were telling people I intentionally cut off a part of my own body," Shelton said. "Now the world knows I didn't."
by CNB