Kelly v. Duke University

McCullough, Judge.

Defendant appeals an Opinion and Award of the North Carolina Industrial Commission (“the Commission”), finding that Betty J. Jeffreys (“decedent”) died as a proximate result of a compensable occupational disease and awarding decedent’s sole surviving sibling, Elsie J. Kelley (“plaintiff’), death benefits pursuant to N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-38 (2007).

The evidence before the Commission tended to show that decedent began working as a medical secretary in the Anesthesia Department at Duke University Medical Center (“defendant”) on 13 March 1996.

As part of decedent’s job…