dailyloe.com – The High Court of Justice of the Canary Islands confirmed the National Institute of Social Security’s decision to deny total permanent disability benefits to a 58-year-old plumber.
This decision was made in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and rejected the appeal submitted by the worker in February 2026.
The worker had begun his claims in July 2021, seeking to be declared totally permanently disabled, which would have granted him a monthly pension of 1,046.49 euros.
To qualify, he needed to prove he could not perform essential job tasks.
The plumber provided medical reports detailing his complex condition, including partial vision loss in the left eye, open fractures in his tibia and radius, severe ankle osteoarthritis, and elbow osteoarthritis.
He also submitted documentation regarding surgery for retinal detachment in March 2023.
In his appeal, he argued he suffered from “permanent sequelae with little or no chance of recovery or improvement,” claiming the previous ruling did not adequately assess his limitations.
The appellant stressed that persistent osteoarthritis and bone sequelae exposed him to a “high risk of infection and loss of skin coverage with total loss of mobility.”
Moreover, he argued that the need to adapt his job to sedentary functions had not been considered.
The TSJ of the Canary Islands concluded that “there is no detriment to normalized work activity,” referencing medical reports indicating that the plumber’s conditions, including the left eye perforation from a work accident and multiple surgeries on his leg and wrist, had not led to a definitive and irreversible decrease in his regular work capacity.
According to the ruling, the visual acuity in the left eye is 0.1 and in the right eye is 1.2.
The fractures and surgeries on his ankle and arm were treated surgically and deemed “clinically stable.”
A crucial point was that the experts did not find new sequelae or worsening conditions in the past year.
The ruling states, “There is no medical documentation a year after the intervention indicating the worsening of the sequela or alteration of the claimant’s visual or trauma-related capacity.”
