D'Alessio v. State
| Decision Date | 16 May 1986 |
| Citation | 509 A.2d 986 |
| Parties | Nancy G. D'ALESSIO v. STATE of Rhode Island, Rhode Island Veteran's Home. 83-401-Appeal. |
| Court | Rhode Island Supreme Court |
This is an appeal by the employer from a decree of the Workers' Compensation Commission (commission) granting the employee's original petition. 1
The essential facts are not in dispute. The employee worked as an institutional attendant whose duties included feeding, bathing, and dressing patients and providing them with basic care. The employee's usual work hours were 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. ,five days per week. On the evening of May 14, 1981 at 7 p.m. employee attended a union meeting, the purpose of which was for employees to discuss grievances to be submitted to their employer. These meetings were the vehicles through which mere gripes could be weeded out from legitimate contractual grievances before negotiation with employer.
The employer provided the union with a room in the Veterans' Home building specifically for the purpose of conducting these meetings. The employer also gave the union permission to use the telephone in a boilerroom across the hall from their union office.
At the May 14 meeting, union representatives were discussing a particular grievance that had been written up by a steward absent from this session due to duties in another ward of the building. As union secretary, employee was asked to telephone the steward and request that he stop by the union office to explain those portions of his grievance that the committee failed to comprehend. As she left the union office and proceeded to the nearest telephone across the hall in the boilerroom, she fell down four stairs twisting her leg under her body and striking cement as she landed on her left side. Stunned, she limped to the telephone where she placed the call, then made her way back to the office where she mentioned her fall to the other committee members. The employee filled out an accident report at work and submitted it to the director of nurses. By May 16, she was experiencing increased pain in her neck, back, arms, and legs to the point where she sought medical help. Due to her pain and medical examination, she stayed out of work from May 17 through June 17, 1981. Her condition was reaggravated as a result of her return to work, and she once again left her job on July 8, 1981, not to return until July 15, 1981.
The issue before us for review is whether an injury sustained while employee was attending a union meeting arose out of and in the course of employment, connected therewith and referable thereto. We have repeatedly held that the question of whether an injury can be said to have arisen out of and in the course of the employment depends upon the particular facts and circumstances of each case. Lima v. William H. Haskell Manufacturing Co., 100 R.I. 312, 215 A.2d 229 (1965).
Moreover, findings of fact by the commission are, in the absence of fraud, conclusive, if supported by competent evidence. This court will only consider issues of law or issues that contain a mixture of facts and law. Spikes v. State, 458 A.2d 672 (R.I. 1983).
In the instant case the facts are not in dispute. The sole question to be determined is whether the injury incurred at the union meeting is compensable.
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