In Rankin v. Averitt Express, Inc., the Mississippi Court of Appeals affirmed the Full Commission’s order denying benefits for two separate alleged work injuries. Following the original trial, the administrative judge awarded benefits for 450 weeks, finding the employee was permanently partially disabled as a result of multiple injuries incurred at work. Wilkins Patterson Smith Pumphrey & Stephenson attorneys appealed this decision to the Full Commission which reversed and found that the employee’s claim was not compensable. The employee then appealed the case to the Mississippi Court of Appeals, and Wilkins Patterson convinced the appellate court to affirm the decision of the Full Commission. The court emphasized that there was a lack of corroborating evidence regarding the alleged work injuries, and it also noted that the medical evidence did not meet the standard required to establish the element of proximate causation.
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