Washington: Where Injured Worker Can Perform Some Jobs of General Nature, “Odd Lot” Instruction to Jury Was Not Appropriate

Quoting Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, a Washington appellate court held that a trial court’s refusal to give a jury instruction as to the odd lot rule was appropriate.  The court reasoned that an “odd lot” worker need not show that he or she was incapable of performing any light or sedentary work; it was sufficient to show only that he or she was incapable of performing light or sedentary work of a general nature. In the instant case, however, all the alternative jobs within the workers’ medical limitations proposed by an employment specialist were full-time jobs of a general nature, not special work. None of the experts presented testimony, nor did counsel argue, that the injured worker could perform only work of a special limited nature.  Since none of the proposed jobs within the worker’s medical limits were odd lot jobs, there was no need to instruct the jury on that doctrine.

Reported by Thomas A. Robinson, J.D.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Erb v. Department of Labor & Indus., 2013 Wash. App. LEXIS 2755 (Dec. 5, 2013) [2013 Wash. App. LEXIS 2755 (Dec. 5, 2013)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 83.01 [83.01]

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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