Craig Cable v. Conagra Foods Packaged Foods Co., Inc., et al. - Articles

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Craig Cable v. Conagra Foods Packaged Foods Co., Inc., et al.

Posted by: Azya Thornton on Nov 1, 2024

Court: TN Workers Comp Appeals Board

Attorneys 1: J. Allen Callison, Brentwood, Tennessee, for the employer-appellant, Conagra Foods Packaged Foods Co., Inc.

Attorneys 2: Craig Cable, Atwood, Tennessee, employee-appellee, pro se.

Judge(s): WEAVER

In this interlocutory appeal, the employer argues the trial court erred in denying its motion for partial summary judgment. The employee reported pain in his right shoulder while working on an assembly line for the employer. At an expedited hearing, the court determined the employee was likely to succeed at trial in proving his injury was primarily related to his work but denied the employee’s request for certain temporary benefits. Thereafter, the trial court entered a scheduling order with deadlines to identify expert witnesses and file expert proof. The employer then filed a motion for summary judgment, alleging the employee did not meet those deadlines, which supported dismissal of the claim. The trial court determined that the employee, acting in a self-represented capacity, disclosed his authorized treating physician as his expert witness, but it held the remainder of the motion in abeyance so the parties could obtain the expert’s opinions. The parties then deposed the expert, who testified the employee had sustained an injury arising primarily out of the employment and would need continued medical care but retained no permanent medical impairment. The employer renewed its motion for summary judgment, asserting it was now a motion for partial summary judgment in light of the physician’s testimony establishing the compensability of the claim but also negating an essential element of the employee’s claim given the lack of any evidence of permanent medical impairment. The trial court denied the motion, and the employer has appealed. After careful review of the record, we affirm the trial court’s order for reasons other than those stated by the court, and we remand the case.

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