A profile he denied owning helped seal the outcome at his hearing

A welder claimed his injured hand left him unable to work. A Tennessee court didn't buy it, and his own texts told a different story.

David Simmons was welding for Konrad Construction on August 11, 2025, when a co-worker dropped a bundle of steel on his right hand. The accident cut his middle and ring fingers. His supervisor drove him to a clinic, where a physician's assistant stitched the wounds and set temporary limits: no heavy lifting and nothing that might reopen the cuts, until a follow-up.

Eleven days later, a doctor removed the stitches. The records from that visit noted no active problems, gave Simmons basic wound-care instructions, and, in a detail that mattered later, assigned no work restrictions.

On September 3, Konrad's chief people officer, Nicholas Keller, texted Simmons that his welding contract was ending and he would be laid off. Simmons replied that he had a new welding job lined up elsewhere, and asked to keep working with the construction crew until it began. The company agreed. He worked through September 12 at his normal pay.

Soon after, Simmons filed for workers' compensation. He wanted ongoing medical care and temporary disability benefits, partly for reduced hours and partly for what he described as a current inability to work.

That last claim is where his case fell apart.

At an expedited hearing on March 10, 2026, Simmons testified that his injuries kept him from finding other...

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