# Thompson v. Goodyear Tire Rubber > North Carolina Industrial Commission · January 8, 2009 URL: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/3639129 ## Case - **Full name:** Alice Faye Thompson, Surviving Spouse of Garry Thompson, Employee v. Goodyear Tire Rubber D/B/A Kelly Springfield, Employer, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Carrier - **Court:** North Carolina Industrial Commission - **Decided:** January 8, 2009 - **Precedential status:** Published - **Opinion:** Dissent - **Judges:**
OPINION AND AWARD for the Full Commission by BUCK LATTIMORE, Commissioner, N.C. Industrial Commission, with BERNADINE S. BALLANCE, Commissioner, Dissenting in Part.
- **Cited by:** 0 later opinions in the Frix Law Library ## Citator (automated) - No negative treatment found by the automated citator. That is not the same as a confirmation that the case is good law; read the citing cases. - Full citator and citing cases: https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/3639129 ## Opinion text I dissent only from that part of the majority Opinion and Award denying payment for attendant care. The evidence of record supports Alice Faye Thompson's claim for remuneration for the attendant care services she rendered to decedent Garry Thompson from March 2, 2004 until the date of his death on May 21, 2004. Alice Faye Thompson took leave of absence from work on March 2, 2004 so that she could care for Mr. Thompson. By that time, Mr. Thompson needed assistance with all of his daily activities. Mrs. Thompson had to give him baths, feed him, help him go to the bathroom, change his diapers when he became incontinent, and get up to help him in the middle of the night. During the day, she had to keep an eye on him constantly because he would try to get up on his own and if he did, he would fall. Given that Mrs. Thompson was essentially "on duty" during the entire day and additionally had to get up with her husband during the night, it is reasonable to infer that she rendered attendant care services for at least sixteen out of twenty-four hours per day. The evidence shows that the type of attendant care services she rendered should be valued as non-skilled attendant care services, and the Full Commission should either assign an hourly rate to these non-skilled attendant care services in an amount determined to be reasonable by the Commission or reopen the case for evidence on this issue. *Page 16 The care provided to Garry Thompson by Alice Faye Thompson was reasonably required to provide relief at least in part from his compensable occupational disease. The fact that Mr. Thompson's other medical conditions in combination with his occupational disease contributed to his incapacity to care for himself would not be a bar to Alice Faye Thompson's claim for payment for attendant care services rendered. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-2 (19). Since the evidence establishes that Alice Faye Thompson provided reasonably necessary attendant care to decedent and that these services were required, in part, due to his compensabale occupational disease, the Full Commission has the discretion and should reopen the record to receive evidence on the hourly rate plaintiff would be entitled as an unskilled provider of care services to decedent Garry Thompson. This the ___ day of January 2009. S/___________________ BERNADINE S. BALLANCE COMMISSIONER *Page 1 --- Source: Frix Law Library, https://www.frixlaw.com/law-library/cases/3639129. Public record. Not legal advice.