On December 13, 2024, the North Carolina Supreme Court issued a unanimous decision on extended compensation benefits that is favorable to employers and workers’ compensation insurance carriers. To be entitled to extended compensation benefits beyond 500 weeks, an employee must prove that the employee has had a “total loss of wage-earning capacity.” The Supreme Court held that a “total loss of wage-earning capacity” means the total loss of the employee’s personal capacity to earn wages through any type of employment. Sturdivant v. North Carolina Public Safety (NC Supreme Court slip opin. No. 130PA23, filed 13 December 2024).
For a period of about 40 years before 2011, employees could receive temporary total disability benefits for their entire life if they could show that they were totally disabled. In 2011 the North Carolina General Assembly amended the Workers’ Compensation Act. In this amendment, the General Assembly capped temporary total disability benefits at 500 weeks. Employees could get “extended compensation” benefits beyond the 500 weeks if they could prove that they had a “total loss of wage-earning capacity.” The Supreme Court’s decision in Sturdivant interpreted what “total loss of wage-earning capacity” means.
Before this case reached the Supreme Court, the Court of Appeals issued a decision that interpreted “total loss of wage-earning capacity” in a way that was very favorable to employees. After the Court of Appeals issued its decision, the General Assembly amended the Workers’ Compensation Act to clarify that a total loss of wage-earning capacity means “the complete elimination of the capacity to earn any wages.” The Supreme Court, in Sturdivant, said that “the General Assembly’s clarification was not necessary because it reflects what the statute’s plain language meant all along: ‘total loss of wage-earning capacity’ in the 2011 amendment means the total loss of the employee’s personal capacity to earn wages in any type of employment.”
In reaching the Sturdivant decision, The Court referred favorably to the Full Commission’s Opinion and Award in Sturdivant, where the Full Commission said that the Sturdivant had not suffered a total loss of wage earning capacity because Sturdivant “would be able to obtain some employment, at a minimum, part-time work in a sedentary position.”
The effect of the Supreme Court’s Sturdivant decision is that it will be very difficult, except in fairly severe cases, for employees to receive extended compensation benefits beyond the 500-week cap that the General Assembly created. If the employee has any capacity to work and earn wages, then that employee will not be able to receive extended compensation benefits beyond the 500-week cap.
