Lombardo v. Atkinson-Kiewit

OPINION

FLANDERS, Justice.

This workers’ compensation case concerns the modern status of the so-called odd-lot doctrine.1 Traditionally, permanently but only partially disabled employees were nevertheless entitled to recover total-disability benefits if, in light of their dimmed employment prospects after suffering a work-related injury, they were deemed unable to perform their regular job or any alternative employment. Such employees, it was said, were an “odd lot” in the labor market and therefore entitled to collect compensation benefits as if they were totally and permanently disabled. We…