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Court Expands Workers' Comp Liability

By Steve Tuttle

A ruling by a divided N.C. Court of Appeals appears to widen the circumstances under which employers can be held liable for injuries sustained by workers who hurt themselves doing dumb things only remotely related to their jobs.The case involves a Parkdale Mills employee who broke his leg climbing a locked gate around a parking lot even though he could have left through an open gate nearby or waited a few minutes for the locked gate to be opened. Even though the employee‘s bad judgment caused his injury, the court said his employer still must pay his medical bills and disability claims.

Although it stretches credulity, the Appeals Court said in its 2-1 decision issued on May 21 that climbing the locked, six-foot-high chain link fence, which is topped by 18 inches of barbed wire, was a reasonable activity related to the worker’s job. Judge James A. Wynn wrote the opinion in the case, which was concurred by Judge Patricia Timmons-Goodson. Judge John Tyson dissented and issued a blistering dissent. The majority opinion includes the shocking statement that the only instance in which an employee can be denied workers’ comp benefits for an accident caused by his own negligence is “when the injury is occasioned by his intoxication or willful intention to injure himself or another.”

In September 1996, employee Richard Arp was leaving his job at the Parkdale Mills plant in Belmont around 7 p.m. The factory has a parking lot behind the plant enclosed by a six-foot-tall chain link fence topped by 18 inches of barbed wire. Arp’s mother had arrived to pick him up, and was parked outside the rear gate, which was locked at the time. Arp could have left through the plant’s front entrance and walked around to the back, or he could have waited for the rear gate to be unlocked at shift-change time. Testimony indicated that Arp was leaving early and didn’t want to be caught, otherwise he could have had his mother pick him up at the front of the plant, where most employees come and go. Instead, Arp tried climbing over the locked rear gate, fell and broke his left leg.

Arp applied for workers’ comp benefits, and the N.C. Industrial Commission, in a ruling by Deputy Commissioner Margaret Morgan Holmes, ruled in his favor even though she found no evidence to dispute Parkdale Mills’ contention that Arp was leaving work 15 minutes early without authorization. On appeal, the full commission largely upheld Holmes’ ruling and concluded that he was not “disobeying a direct or specific order from a then-present supervisor when he climbed the gate.” The commission also said that “contributory negligence or bad judgment on the part of the plaintiff in attempting to leave by climbing the gate is not a bar to recovery” under the workers comp law and was therefore eligible for compensation. The commission ordered Parkdale Mills to pay Arp ongoing total disability compensation of $258.52 per week from the date of the 1996 accident through the time that he returns to work, which he had since done. Parkdale also was ordered to pay for all of Arp’s medical expenses.

Even though the amount of money involved was relatively minor, Parkdale decided it should fight the decision as a matter of principle. A spokesman said the company was disappointed with the Appeals Court’s decision and that it would appeal the ruling to the N.C. Supreme Court.

In the majority opinion he authored, Judge Wynn cited a 1968 case holding that the workers’ comp law “should be liberally construed . . . and its benefits should not be denied by a technical, narrow and strict construction.” He cited a 1976 case in which the court said “evidence tending to support plaintiff’s claim is to be viewed in the light most favorable to plaintiff, and plaintiff is entitled to the benefit of every reasonable inference to be drawn from the evidence.”

Even the fact that Arp was not engaged in a job-related activity doesn’t negate his claim, the court said, citing a 1984 case in which an employee was given workers’ comp benefits for an injured knee he sustained while racing other workers when they were supposed to be taking a rest break. “The only ground set out in the statute upon which compensation may be denied on account of the fault of the employee is when the injury is occasioned by his intoxication or willful intention to injure himself or another,” the court said.

What apparently most troubled Tyson was the majority gave so little credence to the principle that workers’ comp benefits are for people injured while actually performing their jobs. There must be some direct relationship between the injury and the job, Tyson said in citing a pivotal 1966 case, or else workers’ comp becomes “a general health and insurance benefit act.”

Tyson also faulted the majority for giving great weight to the fact the injury occurred on Parkdale’s property. He cited an N.C. Supreme Court holding that “there is no magic in being on the (employer’s) premises.” In that 1979 case, the state high court also said that a worker can’t get workers’ comp benefits when he “does acts different in kind from what he is expected or required to do, which are forbidden and outside the range of his service.”

It just isn’t reasonable to award workers’ comp benefits for an injury resulting from such an unreasonable act, Tyson said in a stinging conclusion: “Scaling a seven and one-half foot tall locked chain link and barb wire gate is an unreasonable activity for plaintiff to exit defendant’s property when a safer method was provided to and known by plaintiff. There was no evidence that any other employees, including plaintiff, ever exited defendant’s premises in this manner. Plaintiff’s activity was not in actual performance of a direct job duty. Plaintiff’s activity was so remote from customary or reasonable practice that is was not causally related to his employment and is not compensable as a matter of law.” 

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