Guess v. Sharp Manufacturing America
Supreme Court of Tennessee
114 S.W.3d 480 (2003)
- Written by Sara Rhee, JD
Facts
Mary Guess (plaintiff) was an assembly-line worker for Sharp Manufacturing Company of America (Sharp) (defendant). On November 6, 1998, one of Guess’s coworkers cut his hand while working. Some of the coworker’s blood got onto Guess’s hand. At the time, Guess had open cuts on her hands. Guess had already suspected that the coworker had the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) because he was frequently sick, looked frail, had friends who had died of AIDS, and was on the mailing list of a gay-rights organization. Consequently, Guess became hysterical from coming into contact with the coworker’s blood and soon after suffered from panic attacks. Guess was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) caused by the incident and was deemed vocationally impaired. Guess filed a workers’ compensation claim under the Tennessee Workers’ Compensation Law (Law). The Chancery Court for Shelby County awarded workers’ compensation benefits to Guess. Sharp appealed.
Rule of Law
Issue
Holding and Reasoning (Barker, J.)
What to do next…
Here's why 811,000 law students have relied on our case briefs:
- Written by law professors and practitioners, not other law students. 46,300 briefs, keyed to 988 casebooks. Top-notch customer support.
- The right amount of information, includes the facts, issues, rule of law, holding and reasoning, and any concurrences and dissents.
- Access in your classes, works on your mobile and tablet. Massive library of related video lessons and high quality multiple-choice questions.
- Easy to use, uniform format for every case brief. Written in plain English, not in legalese. Our briefs summarize and simplify; they don’t just repeat the court’s language.