Series of Workplace Injuries Didn’t Render Worker Permanently Disabled

A woman worked as a special education teaching assistant and then a residential care worker. She was injured eight times in both jobs and received workers’ comp benefits for those injuries. After the last injury to her neck, shoulders and back, she stopped working and claimed that the cumulative effect of the prior injuries rendered her permanently disabled. But the Workers’ Compensation Board and Appeals Tribunal rejected her claim. So the worker sued. The court ruled that these rejections weren’t ‘patently unreasonable.’ The Tribunal didn’t misconstrue her job duties and it thoroughly reviewed the medical evidence before finding that her prior injuries had been minor [Davis v. WorkSafeBC, [2013] B.C.J. No. 531, March 19, 2013].