Dowdy v. Fieldcrest Mills, Inc.

ARNOLD, Judge.

The sole issue on this appeal is whether plaintiff filed his claim within the statute of limitations. G.S. 97-58(c) states in part:

The right to compensation for occupational disease shall be barred unless a claim be filed with the Industrial Commission within two years after death, disability, or disablement as the case may be.

Under G.S. 97-55, disability is defined as “the state of being incapacitated as the term is used in defining ‘disablement’ in G.S. 97-54.” G.S. 97-54 defines disablement in cases like this one to be “equivalent to ‘disability’ as defined in G.S. 97-2(9).”…