COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA
Present: Judges Bumgardner, Humphreys and Senior Judge Hodges
CITY OF DANVILLE SCHOOL BOARD AND
SCHOOL SYSTEMS OF VIRGINIA
SELF-INSURED ASSOCIATION
MEMORANDUM OPINION*
v. Record No. 2715-01-2 PER CURIAM
FEBRUARY 26, 2002
BONNIE LEE WATSON
FROM THE VIRGINIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION
(Andrew R. Blair; Blair Law Offices, on
briefs), for appellants.
(Bonnie L. Watson, pro se, on brief).
Danville School Board (employer) contends the Workers'
Compensation Commission erred in calculating the average weekly
wage of Bonnie Lee Watson (claimant) by combining the wages she
earned in her job as a textbook repairer for employer with the
wages she earned as a bus driver and cafeteria worker for
employer. Upon reviewing the record and the parties' briefs, we
conclude that this appeal is without merit. Accordingly, we
summarily affirm the commission's decision. Rule 5A:27.
In ruling that claimant's average weekly wage should be
based on all three dissimilar jobs she performed for employer
during the fifty-two week period immediately preceding her
* Pursuant to Code § 17.1-413, this opinion is not
designated for publication.
October 4, 1999 compensable injury by accident, the commission
found as follows:
[W]e note that in City of Danville School
Board v. Watson, Record No. 1312-99-2 (dec'd
February 8, 2000), the Court of Appeals, a
case involving the same parties as currently
before us, a similar conclusion was reached.
In that case, this same claimant was injured
during the summer while working as a
textbook repairer. At that time, she was
not driving a bus or working in the
cafeteria. The Court held that all three of
the claimant's jobs which she worked for the
school board during the 52-week period
immediately preceding the injury should be
used in calculating her average weekly wage.
In doing so, the Court relied on the finding
in Dinwiddie County School Board v. Cole,
258 Va. 430, 520 S.E.2d 650 (1999). We find
these cases to be controlling. In the
current case, the claimant last worked the
textbook job on September 9, 1999, shortly
over one-month prior to the accident. In
the previous year, the claimant also worked
the textbook job on intermittent dates
throughout the school year. Therefore, she
was subject at any time to perform the
textbook responsibilities. We note she
received one check for all of her work for
the school board. Based on the totality of
the evidence, we can find nothing to
distinguish claimant's current case such as
to reach a finding that differs from the
Court of Appeals' finding in City of
Danville School Board v. Watson, Record No.
1312-99-2 (dec'd February 8, 2000).
We agree with the commission and find that this case is
controlled by our decision in City of Danville School Board v.
Watson, Record No. 1312-99-2 (Va. Ct. App. Feb. 8, 2000).
Nothing distinguishes this case from the previous case. The
commission's finding is consistent with the language contained
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in Code § 65.2-101(1)(a) requiring that the average weekly wage
be calculated using "[t]he earnings of the injured employee in
the employment in which he was working at the time of the injury
during the period of fifty-two weeks immediately preceding the
date of the injury . . . ."
For these reasons, we affirm the commission's decision.
Affirmed.
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