Wheatley v. Bryant Auto Service

SPAIN, Justice.

This is a workers’ compensation case in which we are asked to decide whether the Administrative Law Judge (ALJ), on his own motion, was empowered to correct an error in his Opinion and Award which had not been appealed and which had become final. Both the Workers’ Compensation Board (Board) and a majority of a Court of Appeals panel answered in the negative. We disagree and reverse both.

By an Opinion dated October 22, 1990, Hon. Thomas A. Nanney, an ALJ, found the claimant to be permanently occupationally disabled by reason of a work-related wrist injury suffered on March 19,…