ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, February 7, 1997 TAG: 9702070043
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: LAURENCE HAMMACK STAFF WRITER
An electrician who claims his job gave him carpal tunnel syndrome is seeking $10million from American Electric Power Co. Inc.
The lawsuit, filed this week in Roanoke Circuit Court, is believed to be the first of its kind in the region since the Virginia Supreme Court ruled last year that carpal tunnel syndrome is not covered by workers compensation benefits.
Daniel G. Bird, an AEP employee since 1966, claims in the suit that his job of installing wiring in transformer boxes required him to perform "damaging repetitive motions and unnatural, awkward hand, wrist and arm positions."
Bird says the job gave him carpel tunnel syndrome, a painful wrist ailment caused by repetitive motions.
Until last year, Virginia workers who suffered from carpal tunnel were covered by worker's compensation system, which provides medical costs and expenses for time lost from a work-related injury or illness.
But in March 1996, the Virginia Supreme Court ruled that state law does not specify benefits for carpal tunnel. This week the General Assembly passed a bill that would provide coverage to syndrome sufferers.
Even if the bill is signed by Gov. George Allen, it would not take effect until July 1 - too late to help Bird, according to Keith Moore, a Vinton lawyer who filed the lawsuit.
Last year, lawyers predicted that the Supreme Court's decision would lead to a flood of lawsuits against employers by workers with sore wrists. Unlike those under the workers' compensation system, employees who file suits would have to prove their injuries were caused by the employer's negligence.
The fact that it took almost a year for the region's first such case to be filed does not surprise Bayard Harris of the Center for Employment Law in Roanoke, a firm that generally represents employers.
"You have to remember that a year in the legal arena is a microsecond," Harris said.
It could easily take a year or longer for someone to hire a lawyer, and for the lawyer to investigate the case and negotiate a possible settlement, before a lawsuit is actually filed, Harris said. And some lawyers with cases ready to file may have been waiting to see what the legislature would do.
"This could very well be the tip of a potential iceberg," Harris said of Bird's lawsuit. (There have been a number of carpal tunnel lawsuits filed against Norfolk Southern Corp. in Roanoke, but railroad employees are not covered by workers compensation for any injury. Instead, they are covered by another federal program which requires them to sue for injury-related damages. Employees covered by workers compensation are barred from filing lawsuits.)
Bird of Roanoke County claims in his lawsuit that AEP failed to provide a safe workplace, or to warn him of the dangers of carpal tunnel. The suit claims that Bird had to leave work in August 1995 on a doctor's advice, and was told he no longer had a job when he attempted to return in January of this year.
Tom Ayres, a spokesman for AEP, declined to comment on the lawsuit, saying Thursday that the company had not yet received a copy of the complaint.
The lawsuit - which seeks $5million in compensatory damages and $5million in punitive damages - was filed by the firm of Del. Richard Cranwell, D-Vinton, who sponsored the carpal tunnel legislation that passed this week.
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