CAM Const. Co., Inc. v. Beccio

• Decision Date: 01 September 1991
• Docket Number: No. 1459,1459
• Citation: 608 A.2d 1264,92 Md.App. 452
• Parties: CAM CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC. et al., v. Vincent J. BECCIO. ,
• Court: Court of Special Appeals of Maryland

Page 452

92 Md.App. 452

608 A.2d 1264

CAM CONSTRUCTION COMPANY, INC. et al., v. Vincent J. BECCIO.

No. 1459, Sept. Term, 1991.

Court of Special Appeals of Maryland.

July 6, 1992.

Amy B. Goldfarb (Wiley, Engel & Packard, on the brief), Baltimore, for appellants.

Janet D. Bacot (Arnold, Bacot, Gay & Tingle, P.A., on the brief), Baltimore, for appellee.

Argued before GARRITY, CATHELL and MOTZ, JJ.

MOTZ, Judge.

This case presents the question of whether an employee's use of a prescription drug may be considered in the evaluation of whether his on-the-job injury arose "out of and in the course of" his employment for the purposes of workers' compensation. Because the use and effect of prescription drugs is relevant to the consideration of an employee's eligibility for workers' compensation, and since this evidence was excluded at trial, we reverse the judgment of the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.

(i)

In May 1987, appellee, Vincent J. Beccio ("Beccio") was employed by appellant, CAM Construction, Inc. ("CAM"), as a superintendent for a construction project informally known as the "Baltimore City Jail project." On June 17, 1987, at around 7:15 a.m., Beccio tripped and fell while walking down a dark corridor in the building under construction. Because he was carrying blueprints, a tape measure, and other tools, Beccio was unable to break his fall; he hit his head on a wall and lost consciousness for about 10 minutes. After he was discovered by another employee, he was taken by ambulance to the University of Maryland Hospital.

While at the hospital, Beccio reported that earlier that morning he had taken one pill known as Dantrium, a muscle relaxant. The hospital report included the following information as recounted by Beccio to the physician on duty:

Tenderness in his legs with toe walking over the past two months. Claims he was given Dantrium by his physician and took his first pill this a.m. Thirty minutes later he became unbalanced, and fell forward striking his face and losing consciousness for several minutes. Claims he couldn't move all his limbs for "five minutes" and then noticed his [left] side was weak ... No prior similar episodes.

The Dantrium had been prescribed in 1987 to treat Beccio's life-long "toe-walking" disorder, a condition which caused him to walk on his toes and lean forward. Among the side effects of Dantrium are drowsiness, dizziness, weakness, general malaise, fatigue and diarrhea. ¹ The toe-walking condition affected Beccio's stride to varying degrees and usually for only short periods of time. When he was not actually "toe-walking," Beccio stepped with a "slight limp" or an "awkward gait", which was attributable at least in part to two operations on his hip in 1970 and 1976.

Beccio filed a claim with the Workers' Compensation Commission ("the Commission") on September 10, 1987, alleging that he had sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment. The claim was heard before the Commission on contested issues filed by CAM and by Travelers Indemnity Company (collectively, "the employer"). On March 16, 1988, the Commission ruled that Beccio had sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment on June 17, 1987.

The employer filed a motion for rehearing, asserting that (1) "several medical reports regarding the initial examination of Mr. Beccio were not admitted by either counsel"; (2) Beccio's counsel "had argued that medical testimony was necessary to indicate the effect of the Dantrium upon his client and [the] attached medical reports do so"; and (3) the Commission's prior holding was "against the weight of the evidence presented in the hearing." The motion was granted, and on July 8, 1988, after rehearing, the Commission rescinded its prior order and ruled that Beccio did not sustain an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment. Beccio appealed this decision to the Circuit Court for Baltimore City.

On January 14, 1991, Beccio filed a motion for summary judgment, arguing inter alia, that Dantrium was administered and taken in accordance with a physician's prescription and Beccio's injury did not occur solely from his idiopathic condition. ² Beccio asserted that Md.Ann.Code art. 101, § 45 (1985), which excluded coverage for persons who are injured solely as a result of intoxication or the effect of a narcotic, depressant, stimulant, hallucinogenic, or other drug, did not preclude coverage for him, because it specifically excepts from this exclusion drugs which have been "administered or taken in accordance with a physician's prescription." On February 20, 1991, the circuit court entered partial summary judgment in favor of Beccio and issued a brief, handwritten explanation for this decision, which stated:

Claimant's motion [for] summary judgment is granted in part only on the limited issue of § 45. [Section] 45 means that if the sole cause of injury is prescription drug the injury is compensable. Liberal construction to the claimant by statute.

(emphasis in original.)

In response to this ruling, the employer filed a motion for reconsideration, which was heard on May 31, 1991, the first day of the trial. A different trial judge denied the motion for reconsideration. Prior to the trial, Beccio also submitted a motion in limine seeking to redact any reference to the drug Dantrium in the medical records submitted as evidence at trial as well as to prohibit testimony at trial regarding the drug. The trial court granted the motion, "as it relates to any defense [by the employer] on the issue of the drug Dantrium being a substantial factor as to the cause of the accident." The court withheld ruling on "any other references to the drug as it may apply to impeachment or credibility of [Beccio]" during direct or cross examination.

The case proceeded to trial. Beccio testified that, on the day of the accident, his walking was "perfectly normal," which, for him, was with his regular limp. His fall, he explained, was caused by his tripping over debris that he could not see due to the darkness of the hallway in which he was walking. His injury was exacerbated, he said, by his inability to catch his fall, due to the tools of his trade which he carried in his hands and arms.

In addition to Beccio's testimony, the jury heard the testimony of Charles Hartman, a carpenter who worked at the construction site where Beccio was injured and who discovered Beccio lying on the floor after his fall. Hartman, who no longer worked for CAM but who had not been fired by the company and who had no friendship with Beccio or anything to be gained by testifying for him, testified that Beccio "was moaning and calling my name." Hartman found Beccio "kind of laid back against the wall and there was blueprints all over the floor and I notice[d] blood coming off his head." Hartman described the setting of the hall where Beccio fell, explaining that "there was very little light coming from the office door, and there was one light just about at the end of the corridor ... It was like walking from outside in the sunlight into a very dim room." In addition, he said that there was "not quite enough light to see where you were going." Hartman further testified that "there was some busted up concrete, some debris on the floor" of the hallway. Lastly, Hartman testified that, on the morning of the accident, Beccio was walking with his normal "limp."

The defense presented two witnesses. First, Melvin Lapp, another superintendent employed by CAM for the Baltimore City Jail project, who was a long-time CAM employee, testified that, while he was not present at the construction site on the day of Beccio's accident, he was very familiar with the project. The hallway where Beccio fell, Lapp said, was "well lit" and, to his knowledge, no one had ever complained about the lighting. Second, James McGarrity, Vice President of CAM, testified that, when he interviewed Beccio in May 1987 for the superintendent's position, he asked Beccio whether his walking condition "would in any way hinder his position as a job site superintendent." Beccio "indicated that it wouldn't ... I also did not think that it would," McGarrity said. McGarrity further testified that, while he was not at the construction site on the day of Beccio's accident, he was familiar with the project. According to McGarrity, "the lighting was sufficient to travel through the corridor" in which Beccio fell; numerous workers passed through the hallway during construction without any problem, he said.

During the trial, there was no mention of Beccio's use of the drug Dantrium. There was, however, reference to his walking condition; for example, Beccio admitted that he sometimes used a cane for a problem with his hip, and that, on a few previous occasions due to his "toe-walking" condition, his legs had "buckled," causing him to fall. The jury was properly instructed that "an injury to be compensable must not only be sustained in the course of employment but must also arise out of employment." It was further correctly instructed as to the meaning of these terms. ³ Charged to respond to the question of whether Beccio's injury arose "out of and in the course of his employment," the jury returned in less than 15 minutes with a verdict in Beccio's favor, i.e., that the injury did arise out of, and in the course of, his employment. The employer now appeals, asserting that the circuit court erred in: (1) its initial holding that if the sole cause of injury was a prescription drug, "the injury is compensable," and in (2) its subsequent refusal to permit the jury to hear evidence of Beccio's use of Dantrium.

(ii)

We are asked here to address the combined effect of two statutes having to do with an employee's eligibility for workers' compensation. First, Md.Ann.Code art. 101, § 15, in effect on the date of Beccio's accident, states in pertinent part:

Every employer subject...