Retirement Does Not Preclude Workers' Compensation Award, Tennessee Court Rules

NASHVILLE, Tenn. - An employee's voluntary retirement does not preclude an award of workers' compensation benefits for an asbestos-related injury that arose out of the insulator's course of employment, the Tennessee Supreme Court has ruled. Mackie v. Young Sales Corp., No. M1998-00590 (Tenn. Sup. Ct.).

Deciding an issue of first impression on March 1, the state high court said that where a worker has in a timely fashion shown that the alleged injury arose from employment, an award of benefits does not require that the employee has worked up until the date he discovered his work-related illness.

"We conclude that …