Darden Restaurant v. Labor Commission

Summary

The court held that Darden waived its limitations defense by failing to request relief based on the workers’ compensation notice requirement, even though it pleaded the defense and introduced evidence that could have supported it. The ALJ’s sua sponte ruling did not preserve the waived issue because allowing Darden to pursue a different theory on appeal was unfair to Sun. The court vacated the court of appeals’ decision and remanded for consideration of the unresolved neck-injury merits issues and subsequent proceedings concerning the shoulder injury.