A judge in the Missouri Court of Appeals affirmed a decision from the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission that an employer must pay an injured workers’ wife for the nursing services she provided to her husband after his injury.

Ronald Reynolds worked for Wilcox Truck Line, Inc. as a driver and was driving his regular route in July of 2007 when he was in a serious accident. He was taken to a hospital but was released that day with directions to see a local doctor because he was in a very agitated state and medical staff determined he would be safer at home. Upon his return home he began experiencing sleep disturbances and his employer told him to go to the urgent care. He was diagnosed with PTSD and referred to a licensed clinical social worker who diagnosed him with acute stress disorder.

His psychiatrist and neuropsychologist cleared him for a trial period to return to driving which involved co-driving trips at first to eventually progress to full duty. He eventually returned to solo trips but in April 2008 he witnessed a bad accident on the road and suffered a sort of breakdown and has not returned to work since. His neuropsychologist then diagnosed his PTSD as a permanent 10% partial disability and said he had reached a maximum level of psychological improvement and could return to work, but another physician determined he was permanently and totally disabled and could not find gainful employment as a result of his PTSD. This opinion was supported by other physicians who examined Reynolds.

In March 2011 he requested nurse services related to his injury, but his employer refused to provide them. His wife reduced her work hours in order to care for him and ultimately quit her job to care for him full-time. He sought workers’ compensation for his injuries and an Administrative Law Judge determined he was permanently and totally disabled but denied his request for past nursing services provided by his wife because the ALJ determined the services she provides are “primarily services ordinarily provided by a wife to a husband”. Both parties went to the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission for review, and they upheld the disability finding and partially reversed the ALJ’s decision and awarded him compensation for his wife’s past nursing services.

The judge upheld this award. His employer argued that even though he could not operate a truck he was not incapable of another kind of employment. The judge said that a claimant doesn’t need to be “completely inert or inactive” to qualify as permanently and totally disabled, and a vocational rehabilitation expert had testified that Reynolds was “totally vocationally disabled from employment”. The judge also disagreed with the argument that her services were typical in marriage and qualified as nursing services and were compensable.

Read the case here.