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Floyd v. Taco Mayo/Accord Human Resources6/25/2002
FACTS AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND
Respondent, Accord Human Resources, owns and operates a Taco Mayo restaurant in Tecumseh, Oklahoma. The restaurant is managed by Pat McConnell, who co-owns it with his father, Phil McConnell. Petitioner, Linley Lynae Floyd, is Pat McConnell's sister and Phil McConnell's daughter. Floyd worked part time for the McConnells in their restaurant and the McConnells allowed Floyd to eat free meals there at any time. The McConnells also provided meals for their other employees at half price, provided the meals were eaten within thirty minutes before their shifts began or thirty minutes after they ended.
Floyd had a full time day job in an insurance business but also worked at the Taco Mayo as a part time employee. Although she was not scheduled to work on the day she was injured, Floyd went to the restaurant to eat at about 6:00 p.m. that day, May 6, 1999. When she arrived, her brother asked her if she could work because they were busy. Floyd agreed and worked from 6:00 p.m. until 9:00 p.m., at which time she signed out on a time sheet form used by the restaurant to account for its employees' time.
Floyd testified that she was free to leave the restaurant after her shift but that she chose to stay and eat. As she was completing her meal at about 9:15 or 9:20 p.m., Floyd went to the self-serve drink machine to refill her drink. She slipped on a wet place on the floor, fell and injured her left knee. The dining room was closed at 9:00 p.m. and there were apparently no customers there when Floyd fell. Sometime after 9:00 p.m. another restaurant employee had apparently removed a mat from in front of the drink machine while cleaning the restaurant's floor.
After Floyd fell, her brother called an ambulance and she was taken to a Shawnee hospital for treatment. Floyd was treated and released, returned to work within a few days, and later took a full time job at the restaurant. Floyd did not initially file a claim in the Workers' Compensation Court. Instead, she filed a common law negligence claim against the restaurant under its liability policy. Floyd was paid $1,000.00 in medical pay by the restaurant's insurance carrier as a result of her claim. On October 2, 1999, while she was working for the restaurant on a full time basis, Floyd had another accident and re-injured her left knee, which injury was followed by arthroscopic surgery on October 25, 1999. Floyd filed a Form 3, Employee's First Notice of Accidental Injury and Claim for Compensation, for the injury at issue here on January 24, 2001 and filed another Form 3, apparently at or near the same time, for the later October 2, 1999 injury.
Respondents claim and Floyd does not deny that Floyd's knee surgery was paid for by compensation benefits flowing from her claim for compensation from her second knee injury of October 2. Floyd resigned from her job in her family's restaurant sometime after her October 2 injury and before she filed her claims for compensation under circumstances that her brother described as having generated "ill will or problems."
In its order the Workers' Compensation Court found:
1. THAT at the time of the incident causing injury to the claimant's LEFT LEG (KNEE), she was "clocked out" and was performing personal activities (eating) which were not related to her work duties.
2. THAT the claimant failed to establish that she sustained an accidental personal injury arising out of and in the course of her employment to her LEFT LEG (KNEE) on or about May 6, 1999.
Based on the foregoing findings, the trial court denied Floyd's claim for compensation.
ISSUE
Page 1 2 3 Oklahoma Personal Injury Attorneys
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