GULF STATES PAPER CORPORATION v. Warren

Gulf States Paper Corporation ("the employer") appeals from a judgment awarding Randy Lee Warren ("the employee") workers' compensation benefits for a permanent partial disability resulting from what, the trial court determined, was a nonscheduled injury to the employee's left hand. Because we hold that the trial court erred in treating the injury as nonscheduled, we reverse and remand.

On August 10, 2000, the employee was performing general clean-up duties in the sawmill area of the employer's Moundville facility when he noticed a vine lodged in the conveyor belt of a debarking machine. When…