Wyoming Court
Rules Total Disability under Odd Lot Doctrine
[Posted 08/26/2008]
A
recent Wyoming State Supreme Court decision held
that an employee’s education and training level, and
not just total incapacitation, can make a worker
eligible for permanent and total disability. The
court ruled that although an individual may not be
altogether incapacitated, s/he may be so handicapped
as to be unemployable in any well known branch of
the labor market.
In the
current case, the plaintiff had a high school
education, spoke limited English, and had
previously only worked in a coal mine. He incurred
injuries that prevented him from continuing in the
work for which he was educationally suited,
although he was potentially capable of light duty
work if such employment could be obtained.
The
court found in his favor, concluding that it would
be almost impossible for him to prove that he would
never find light work that he would be able to do.
The fact that it was highly unlikely that he would
find suitable employment was sufficient under
“odd-lot
doctrine,”
which states that a person need not show that he is
totally incapable of doing any work in order to be
entitled to an award for permanent total
disability.
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