LORI M. JONES,
Employee/Plaintiff,
v
.
North Carolina Industrial
Commission I.C. No. 187952
NEW HANOVER COUNTY SCHOOLS,
Employer,
and
KEY RISK INSURANCE COMPANY,
Carrier/Defendants.
Law Offices of Kathleen G. Sumner, by Kathleen G. Sumner, for
plaintiff-appellee.
Attorney General Roy Cooper, by Assistant Attorney General
Patrick S. Wooten, for defendant-appellant.
LEVINSON, Judge.
Defendant (New Hanover County Schools) appeals an Opinion and
Award of the North Carolina Industrial Commission, awarding certain
benefits to plaintiff Lori Jones. We affirm in part and reverse
in part.
The relevant facts are summarized as follows: In September
1998 defendant hired plaintiff as a teacher's assistant in a
special education classroom, a position that plaintiff continued tohold during the 2001-2002 school year. On 11 October 2001
plaintiff suffered a compensable injury as a result of the violent
behavior of a student in the class. In November 2001, plaintiff
filed a claim for workers' compensation benefits, and a request for
a hearing before the Industrial Commission. Defendant accepted
plaintiff's claim as compensable on a medical only basis, but
asserted that plaintiff was not entitled to disability benefits.
Following a hearing, Deputy Commissioner Brad Donovan issued an
opinion and award on 30 January 2004. The commissioner ruled that:
(1) plaintiff failed to demonstrate entitlement to disability
benefits; (2) plaintiff was entitled to benefits under N.C. Gen.
Stat. § 115C-338, for injury to a school employee as a result of
violence; (3) plaintiff was entitled to medical benefits; and (4)
plaintiff was not entitled to disability benefits for time lost
from employment other than with defendant.
Plaintiff appealed to the Full Commission, which issued an
Opinion and Award on 7 February 2005, awarding plaintiff medical
benefits, attorney's fees, and benefits under N.C. Gen. Stat. §
115C-338. The Commission also awarded plaintiff temporary total
disability benefits as compensation for her lost summer earnings in
a family commercial fishing business; plaintiff had testified that,
as a result of her compensable injury, she had been unable to work
in the fishing industry during the summer of 2002. Commissioner
Buck Lattimore dissented from this part of the award, arguing that
plaintiff was not entitled to disability benefits from a job otherthan her employment with defendant. From this order, defendant
timely appealed.
(c) (1) . . . Each assignment of error shall, so
far as practicable, be confined to a single
issue of law; and shall state plainly,
concisely and without argumentation the legal
basis upon which error is assigned. . . .
N.C.R. App. P. 10(a) and (c)(1). Thus, the scope of appellate
review is limited to the issues presented by assignments of error
set out in the record on appeal; where the issue presented in the
appellant's brief does not correspond to a proper assignment of
error, the matter is not properly considered by the appellate
court. Bustle v. Rice, 116 N.C. App. 658, 659, 449 S.E.2d 10, 11
(1994) (citation omitted). Assignments of error that are 'broad,
vague, and unspecific . . . do not comply with the North Carolina
Rules of Appellate Procedure[.]' Walker v. Walker, __ N.C. App.
__, __, 624 S.E.2d 639, 641 (2005) (quoting In re Appeal of Lane
Co., 153 N.C. App. 119, 123, 571 S.E.2d 224, 226-27 (2002)). Defendant herein made two assignments of error:
1. Whether Industrial Commission erred in
ordering the payment of temporary total
disability benefits pursuant to N.C. Gen.
Stat. § 97-29 under a misapprehension of law.
2. Whether Industrial Commission erred in
ordering the payment of temporary total
disability benefits pursuant to N.C. Gen.
Stat. § 97-29 for alleged time lost from a
second job, unrelated to plaintiff's
employment with Defendant-Employer.
We conclude that defendant's first assignment of error, that the
Commission's award of disability benefits was made under a
misapprehension of law, is so vague as to be meaningless, and
failed to preserve any issue for appellate review:
Defendant's assertion that a given . . .
ruling was erroneous as a matter of law
completely fails to identify the issues
actually briefed on appeal. . . . Defendant's
series of generic assertions that the trial
court's findings and conclusions were
erroneous as a matter of law essentially
amount to no more than an allegation that the
court erred because its ruling was erroneous.
Walker, __ N.C. App. at __, 624 S.E.2d at 642 (internal quotation
marks omitted).
Regarding defendant's second assignment of error, we conclude
it adequately preserves for appellate review the issue of whether
the Industrial Commission erred by awarding plaintiff disability
benefits for a summer job for an employer other than defendant.
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