The Supreme Court of Kentucky has upheld an award of more than $650,000 in workers’ compensation permanent disability benefits, plus related medical expenses, for a Nortonville man who suffered disabling hip and back injuries while working as an equipment operator for Muhlenberg County Coal Co., LLC. Morgan, Collins, Yeast & Salyer attorney McKinnley Morgan represented the injured worker.
Gregory Rodgers, a 54-year-old equipment operator at the time, filed a claim for workers’ compensation benefits in July 2018 related to a left hip injury and cumulative trauma to his lumbar, thoracic, and cervical spine during his employment with Muhlenberg County Coal. His employer contested the claim. Litigation before an Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) followed.
In January 2021, the ALJ awarded Rodgers workers’ compensation benefits, finding that he sustained a 10 percent whole-person impairment from the left hip injury and an 8 percent whole-person impairment from the cumulative trauma to the back. The ALJ awarded permanent partial disability (PPD) benefits, finding that he was still able to perform light-duty or sedentary work.
Rodgers moved to reopen his claim in October 2023, based on a worsening of his condition since the original award. He stated that he had become permanently and totally disabled due to deterioration of his hip and lumbar spine injuries. Rodgers supported his contention with an affidavit from Dr. Chad Morgan.
The claim was reopened and assigned to an ALJ in January 2024. The ALJ found that “Rodgers’ physical condition has changed, resulting in a decreased ability from performing light and sedentary work to performing at best a limited range of sedentary work.” The ALJ awarded permanent total disability (PTD) benefits.
Muhlenberg County Coal appealed the ALJ’s ruling to the Workers’ Compensation Board
of Kentucky and then to the Kentucky Court of Appeals, both of which affirmed the ALJ’s award of PTD benefits. Muhlenberg appealed once again, this time to the Supreme Court of Kentucky.
In an unpublished opinion issued on June 25, 2026, the Supreme Court again affirmed the reopening of the claim and the award of permanent total disability benefits. The case was Muhlenberg County Coal Co., LLC v. Gregory Rodgers, Case. No. 2025-SC-0336-WC.