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Addy v. Professional Business Owners Association Workers' Compensation Fund6/7/2002
Professional Business Owners Association Workers' Compensation Fund and Piknik Products Company, Inc. (hereinafter collectively referred to as "Piknik"), sued Samson Addy, as the surviving spouse of Annie Bibb Addy, and their minor children, on July 15, 1996, seeking a judgment declaring whether Annie's shooting death was a compensable injury, and, therefore, whether Piknik is responsible for the payment of death benefits under the Workers'Compensation Act. Samson Addy, individually, and on behalf of his minor children (Samson and the children are hereinafter referred to as "the dependants"), answered and counterclaimed on December 18, 1996, seeking workers' compensation death benefits pursuant to §§ 25-5-60 and -61, Ala. Code 1975. On February 29, 2000, the parties jointly moved to submit the case to the trial court on a stipulation of facts and submission of evidentiary materials. On June 1, 2001, the trial court entered an order finding that Annie's shooting death did not arise out of and in the course of her employment and it denied death benefits to her dependents. The dependents appeal.
This case is governed by the 1992 Workers' Compensation Act, § 25- 5-1 et seq., Ala. Code 1975. This Act provides that an appellate court's review of the standard of proof and its consideration of other legal issues shall be without a presumption of correctness. § 25-5- 81(e)(1), Ala. Code 1975. It further provides that when an appellate court reviews a trial court's findings of fact, those findings will not be reversed if they are supported by substantial evidence. § 25-5- 81(e)(2). Our supreme court "has defined the term 'substantial evidence,' as it is used in § 12-21-12(d), to mean 'evidence of such weight and quality that fair-minded persons in the exercise of impartial judgment can reasonably infer the existence of the fact sought to be proved.'" Ex parte Trinity Indus., Inc., 680 So. 2d 262, 268 (Ala. 1996), quoting West v. Founders Life Assurance Co. of Florida, 547 So. 2d 870, 871 (Ala. 1989). This court has also concluded: "The new Act did not alter the rule that this court does not weigh the evidence before the trial court." Edwards v. Jesse Stutts, Inc., 655 So. 2d 1012, 1014 (Ala. Civ. App. 1995).
At the time of the shooting on May 28, 1996, Annie had been employed at Piknik for six years as a machine operator. She was 31 years old, married, and had three minor children. Addie was shot and killed by Richard Flowers while she was sitting in her car at the Piknik plant during a scheduled break. Flowers confessed to Annie's murder and was subsequently convicted of the crime. Flowers was a temporary employee assigned to work at Piknik by Teamwork Temporary Services.
When Flowers was hired by Teamwork, its president, Abby Fleming, was aware that he had been convicted of manslaughter and that he had recently been released from prison. Flowers had been convicted in 1980 for beating a person to death with a shovel. Fleming testified that Teamwork had made Piknik aware of Flowers's criminal history and that Flowers himself had also informed Piknik of his criminal history.
Flowers was not on duty on the day of the shooting and had, in fact, not worked for several days preceding the shooting. Flowers had worked the second shift at Piknik with Annie; however, earlier on the afternoon of May 28, he was informed by Eddie Windham, the production supervisor, that he was being transferred to the first shift.
Windham testified that Flowers was being transferred to first shift because he needed more supervision and that more management personnel worked on the first shift. The transfer was based on Flowers's behavior on the second shift. Herb Jordan, Annie and Flowers's
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