Harrell v. Harriet & Henderson Yarn

ARNOLD, Judge.

I

Plaintiff first assigns error to the Commission’s failure to award plaintiff benefits under the version of G.S. 97-31(24) in effect at the time she became disabled. We agree that, in occupational disease cases, the date of “injury” is deemed to be the date of disability. See Frady v. Groves Thread, 56 N.C. App. 61, 286 S.E. 2d 844 (1982). However, as defendant correctly points out in its cross-appeal, injury caused by an occupational disease does not fall within the scope of G.S. 97-31(24).

Until the passage of G.S. 97-52, some six years after adoption of the Workers’…