Blankenship v. American Ordnance Systems

• Decision Date: 12 May 2005
• Citation: 164 S.W.3d 350
• Parties: Gatha BLANKENSHIP v. AMERICAN ORDNANCE SYSTEMS, LLS, d/b/a Milan Army Ammunition Plant.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

164 S.W.3d 350

Gatha BLANKENSHIP v. AMERICAN ORDNANCE SYSTEMS, LLS, d/b/a Milan Army Ammunition Plant.

Supreme Court of Tennessee, at Jackson.

April 5, 2005 Session.

May 12, 2005.

Jeffrey P. Boyd, Jackson, Tennessee, for the appellant, Gatha Blankenship.

Fred Collins, Milan, Tennessee, for the appellee, American Ordnance Systems, LLC, d/b/a Milan Army Ammunition Plant.

OPINION

FRANK F. DROWOTA, III, C.J., delivered the opinion of the court, in which E. RILEY ANDERSON, ADOLPHO A. BIRCH, JR., JANICE M. HOLDER and WILLIAM M. BARKER, JJ., joined.

The employee in this workers' compensation case injured her back while taking an upper body strength test on the employer's premises. The employee, who was laid off at the time of the injury, voluntarily took the strength test as part of the application process for new jobs being created in the employer's factory. The trial court found that the employee's injury was not compensable because it did not arise out of her employment. The employee's appeal was transferred to the full Supreme Court prior to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel hearing oral argument. The dispositive question before this Court is whether the evidence preponderates against the trial court's finding that the employee's injury did not arise out of her employment. After carefully examining the record and the relevant authorities, we hold that the evidence does not preponderate against the trial court's finding that the employee's injury did not arise out of her employment. We also conclude that the employee's injury did not occur in the course of her employment. Accordingly, we affirm the trial court's judgment.

I. Factual and Procedural Background

The employee, Gatha Blankenship, was a fifty-four-year-old high school graduate at the time of trial. Her employment history consisted of production work in various factories. In 1987, the employee began working for the employer in this case, American Ordnance Systems, LLC, d/b/a Milan Army Ammunition Plant. The employee's job was to assemble bullets. Her duties did not require heavy lifting.

In February 2002, the employee was temporarily laid off due to a decrease in the employer's business.¹ While the employee was on layoff status, the employer posted a notice at its facility that medical evaluations for upper body strength would be performed on those employees interested in applying for new jobs being created in the plant. The new positions had specific lifting requirements. Thus, in order to qualify as a candidate for the new jobs, applicants had to pass a strength test, which entailed repetitive lifting of 25 pounds and occasional lifting of 70 pounds. The test was available to employees only, not the general public. The posted notice instructed employees interested in the new jobs to contact the employer's human resources department.

The employee did not see the posted notice prior to being laid off but heard about it from friends after she was laid off. Although no one in a supervisory capacity ever told the employee that she was required to take the strength test, she understood based on conversations with friends that she needed to take the test in order to keep her current job. The employee acknowledged, however, that the strength test was not a condition of her continued employment because she was eventually called back to work despite not passing the test.

The employee took the strength test on March 7, 2002, on the employer's premises. The test, which took one hour to take, involved lifting weights from various heights and positions. The employee was not compensated to take the test, and she did not pass it. She was receiving unemployment benefits when she took the test.

Immediately upon completing the strength test, the employee began experiencing weakness in her back. By the time she got to her car, the weakness had developed into pain. Over the next several days, the pain worsened and radiated down her leg. The employee testified that within days of taking the strength test she was concerned that she had "damaged something" in her back. Over the next several weeks, the employee attempted to treat herself but to no avail. When it became clear to the employee that she was in "some serious trouble" with her back, she sought medical attention at a hospital emergency room on May 19, 2002. She gave hospital employees a history of having back pain since lifting weights during the strength test. She gave the same history to her physician on May 21, 2002. The employee was diagnosed with a bulging disc. She was given a permanent physical impairment rating of 5% to the whole body.

According to the employee, she reported the injury to the employer on May 21, 2002.² The employer denied the claim. This suit resulted.

Paul Harrison, the employer's human resources manager, testified that taking the strength test was voluntary and that the employee was not paid to take the test. Harrison also testified that taking the test was not a condition of the employee's continued employment or her return to work. He stated that the strength test was open only to employees, not the general public. He also stated that employees on temporary layoff status, such as the employee in this case, were still regarded as employees of the company for 120 days, at which point they were terminated if there was insufficient work to call them back. This arrangement was dictated by a collective bargaining agreement between the employee's union and the employer. In any event, Harrison testified that the employee was still employed when she took the strength test on March 7, 2002, a point conceded by the employer's lawyer at trial.³

The trial court, noting that "this is an unusual case," found that the employee's back injury was not compensable because it did not arise out of her employment. The trial court explained that "perhaps she had good motives in submitting to the test because she thought by doing so that she could seek better employment within her company or more immediate employment within her company since she's on layoff. But there's no question in the court's mind that there's no element of compulsion to this." Thus, the trial court found that taking the test was voluntary. The trial court also found it significant that the employee was not compensated to take the test. The trial court made a provisional finding of 25% permanent partial disability to the body as a whole in case the court's finding regarding compensability was reversed on appeal.

The employee appealed the denial of benefits. The appeal was transferred to the full Supreme Court prior to oral argument before the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel. We note that the standard of review in this case is de novo upon the record of the trial court, accompanied by a presumption of the correctness of the findings, unless the preponderance of the evidence is otherwise. Tenn.Code Ann. § 50-6-225(e)(2) (Supp.2004).

II. Analysis

Many cases have reached this Court concerning the statutory requirements that a compensable injury arise out of and occur in the course of the employment. See Tenn.Code Ann. § 50-6-102(13)(Supp.2004) (to be eligible for workers' compensation benefits, an employee must suffer an "injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment"). Tennessee is not unique in this regard, for 43 states require that the injury arise out of and occur in the course of the employment. 1 Larson's Workers' Compensation Law § 3.01(2004). Indeed, the bulk of workers' compensation litigation centers on these two requirements. Id. As one commentator has observed, "[f]ew groups of statutory words in the history of law have had to bear the weight of such a mountain of interpretation as has been heaped upon this slender foundation." Id.

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