Court of Appeals says that employer had notice of injury, cannot direct medical care

Today, a three-judge panel of the North Carolina Court of Appeals held that an employee of Bank of America did not need to give written notice of his injury, where he was hit by a car while driving at work. The employee called his employer from the car, and several co-workers went to help him, yet Bank of America had said that it did not have sufficient notice of the injury. The Full Industrial Commission and the Court of Appeals rejected this argument in Yingling v. Bank of America. The Court also held that although the employer in a workers’ compensation case normally directs medical care, in this case, the employer had forfeited that right by contesting the claim, losing at the Full Commission and then appealing to the Court of Appeals. Therefore, the Court upheld the Commission’s award ordering that plaintiff’s doctor is the authorized treating physician.