 |
 |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|
|
|
|
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. Lanum6/18/1996
MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY JUDGE ROSEMARIE ANNUNZIATA.
Employer, Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Inc., appeals the decision of the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission, awarding medical benefits to claimant, Larry D. Lanum. The commission found claimant suffered a compensable injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. Employer contends claimant's injury did not "arise out of" his employment. Finding no error, we affirm.
Claimant's job duties included filing three-by-seven inch aperture cards in the bottom drawer of a knee-high cabinet for approximately ten to fifteen minutes each day. In conducting this task, claimant bent at the waist, at approximately forty-five degrees, and tilted his head back to see through his bifocals. Claimant testified that on July 15, 1994 he experienced a sudden pain in his neck while in this position. He stated that the pain grew progressively worse the next day and through the summer and fall. Claimant's medical records also indicate that claimant's pain gradually intensified.
Following his injury, claimant continued to work and perform his usual tasks. Claimant first sought medical attention for his condition on August 10 from the plant dispensary where he complained of neck pain and numbness and tingling in his right shoulder. In September, Dr. Lawrence F. Cohen, claimant's attending physician, diagnosed claimant with a C3-4 herniated disk. Dr. Cohen's "Attending Physician's Report" notes that claimant's condition resulted from a hyperextension of his neck at work on July 15. Claimant subsequently underwent surgery.
The deputy commissioner found claimant suffered a compensable injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. The deputy commissioner made specific findings that claimant was injured at work and that the injury was not a pre-existing condition. However, the deputy commissioner did not make a specific finding with respect to whether claimant's injury arose out of and in the course of employment.
The full commission affirmed. It found the evidence sufficient to establish the specific time and place of claimant's injury and further found that claimant's employment required him to file the cards and required the work be performed in an unusual or awkward position. The ability to do the filing in a different manner was found to be of no consequence.
I.
"Injury by accident" is defined, within the context of the Workers' Compensation Act as "an identifiable incident or sudden precipitating event [that results] in an obvious sudden mechanical or structural change in the body." Morris v. Morris, 238 Va. 578, 589, 385 S.E.2d 858, 865 (1989). By contrast, a gradually incurred injury is not an injury by accident within the meaning of the Act. Middlekauff v. Allstate Insurance Co., 247 Va. 150, 154, 439 S.E.2d 394, 397 (1994). Though an injury by accident must be "'bounded with rigid temporal precision,' . . . an injury need not occur within a specific number of seconds or minutes . . . but instead, must occur within a 'reasonably definite time.'" Brown v. Caporaletti, 12 Va. App. 242, 243-44, 402 S.E.2d 709, 710 (1991) (quoting Morris, 238 Va. at 589, 385 S.E.2d at 865 (1989)).
On appeal, this Court construes the evidence in the light most favorable to the party prevailing below. R.G. Moore Bldg. Corp. v. Mullins, 10 Va. App. 211, 212, 390 S.E.2d 788, 788 (1990). The commission's findings of fact will be upheld if supported by credible evidence. James v. Capitol Steel Constr. Co., 8 Va. App. 512, 515, 382 S.E.2d 487, 488 (1989).
We find credible evidence to support the commission's finding that claimant suffere
Page 1 2 3 Virginia Personal Injury Attorneys
Personal Injury Lawyers
|
| |
to fill out a simple form to connect to Personal Injury Lawyers in your area.
|
|