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Belcher v. T. Rowe Price Foundation Inc.3/25/1993
I
On this appeal we visit once again the Workers' Compensation Act, now codified as Title 9 in the Labor and Employment article of the Maryland Code (1991). We are called upon to determine the expanse of the phrase "accidental personal injury " in the contemplation of the Act. The phrase appears first in § 9-101 under the subtitle "Definitions." Subsection (b) provides in relevant part:
"Accidental personal injury " means:
(1) an accidental injury that arises out of and in the course of employment;
(2) an injury caused by a willful or negligent act of a third person directed against a covered employee in the course of the employment of the covered employee. . . .
"'Covered employee' means an individual listed in Subtitle 2 of [the Act] for whom a person . . . is required by law to provide coverage under [the Act]." § 9-101(f). The Act applies to an employer "who has at least 1 covered employee."
§ 9-201(1). Generally, "an individual . . . is a covered employee while in the service of an employer under an express or implied contract . . . of hire." § 9-202(a). Ordinarily, "each employer of a covered employee shall provide compensation in accordance with [the Act]"
to the covered employee for an accidental personal injury sustained by the covered employee. . . .
§ 9-501(a)(1). "An employer is liable to provide compensation in accordance with subsection (a) of [§ 9-501], regardless of fault as to a cause of the accidental personal injury ." § 9-501(b). The Act commands that it "shall be construed to carry out its general purpose." § 9-102(a). It declares: "The rule that a statute in derogation of the common law is to be strictly construed does not apply to this ." § 9-102(b) These dictates are to assure that the Act's benevolent purpose as remedial social legislation will be effectuated. Alitalia Linee Aeree Italiane, et al. v. Tornillo, 329 Md. 40, 617 A.2d 572, 576 (1993); Lovellette v. City of Baltimore, 297 Md. 271, 282, 465 A.2d 1141(1983).
II
Carol Belcher sought compensation under the Act. Upon a plenary hearing, the Workers' Compensation Commission disallowed her claim. She took her cause to the Circuit Court for Baltimore City. The court ruled in accord with the Commission. Belcher sought relief in the Court of Special Appeals. We intervened before the intermediate court entertained the case and, on our own motion, certified it to us for resolution. 328 Md. 35, 612 A.2d 897(1992).
A
We learn of the circumstances leading to Belcher's claim for compensation through the transcript of the hearing before the Commission and from a statement of facts gleaned from that transcript and agreed upon by the parties.
Belcher was employed as a secretary for T. Rowe Price Foundation, Inc. Her desk was in the northwest corner of the top floor in downtown Baltimore's IBM building. Another office high-rise was being erected next to the IBM building, and the din of nearby construction made its way into Belcher's workplace. Occasionally she had trouble hearing people on the phone. At times the floor beneath her would vibrate, and things would bump on the roof. Overall, the intrusions were barely tolerable. Then on the morning of 11 April 1991 disaster struck. A three-ton beam being hoisted by a construction crane broke loose and tumbled some twenty feet, crashing without warning through the thick concrete roof over Belcher's head. It landed five feet from where she sat at her desk tending to the day's business. The sound w
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