NC Construction Worker Loses Workers’ Comp Appeal Regarding Back Injury

A North Carolina construction worker was denied workers’ compensation by an appellate court after they concluded that the man’s back injury was unrelated to the a two-by-four accident that took place two years before.

In 2008, a worker for Young Buck Construction in North Carolina suffered a serious injury in which he fell during the workday onto a piece of wood that punctured his rectum and colon. This year, the worker applied for workers’ comp benefits claiming that his back pain was directly related to his fall injury two years before. However, a medical report said that his original injury did not affect his back or spine and that the two injuries were not causally related.

The North Carolina Court of Appeals therefore sent the workers’ comp case back to the Industrial Commission with the decision that the man could only receive benefits if he was able to prove that the back injury occurred because of the fall injury.