The Supreme Court of Tennessee affirmed the decision of Tennessee Workers' Compensation Appeals Board in denying an employee being awarded workers compensation due to failure  to give timely notice and for failing to prove her employer had prior knowledge of the injury. The case is Ernstes v. Printpack, Inc., 2024 Tenn. LEXIS 1 (Tenn. 2024). 

Arlene Ernstes worked for Printpack, Inc. for 33 years. She worked many positions during her employment, but spent a majority of her time on the plant floor where she worked amongst loud machinery. Printpack required employees to wear hearing protection gear and would provide hearing screenings annually. 

Ernstes retired in 2016 and was unaware of any hearing loss. Following her retirement, she noticed hearing loss but assumed it was due to her age. An audiological exam conducted in 2019 revealed significant hearing loss, but she still did not connect it to her employment at the time. In September 2020, Ernstes went with her husband to a meeting with an attorney regarding her husband's employment-related hearing loss case and discussed her own hearing loss. On November 17, 2020, she filed a Petition for Benefit Determination with the Tennessee Bureau of Workers' Compensation based on hearing loss caused by noise exposure at Printpack.