In Brief
A loading and unloading labourer suffered a compound fracture of her left arm with permanent loss of grip and nerve damage, rendering her unfit for labour work. A medical board certified 50% disability; the Labour Commissioner awarded full (100%) compensation for total disablement; the High Court reduced it to 40% partial disablement based on the medical percentage. The Supreme Court restored the full award, holding that permanent total disablement is determined by functional incapacity to perform the work one was doing at the time of the accident, not by medical disability percentages alone. Since loading/unloading ordinarily requires both hands and the worker lost functional use of one hand, she was totally disabled from her trade.
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