Fontenot v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc.

• Decision Date: 07 April 2004
• Docket Number: No. 03-1570.,03-1570.
• Citation: 870 So.2d 540
• Parties: Margaret FONTENOT v. WAL-MART STORES, INC.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

870 So.2d 540

Margaret FONTENOT v. WAL-MART STORES, INC.

No. 03-1570.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

April 7, 2004.

Kevin L. Camel, Cox, Cox, Filo & Camel, Lake Charles, LA, for Plaintiff/Appellee, Margaret Fontenot.

Frank A. Flynn, Allen & Gooch, Lafayette, LA, for Defendant/Appellant, Wal-mart Stores, Inc.

Court composed of JIMMIE C. PETERS, MARC T. AMY, and ELIZABETH A. PICKETT, Judges.

AMY, Judge.

In this workers' compensation matter, the employee-claimant suffered an apparent seizure while at work, during which she fell to the floor and hit her head, cracking her skull. She underwent emergency surgery, which, in turn, resulted in an infection that required two additional surgeries. The claimant subsequently filed a disputed-compensation form, asserting that her employer had not paid wage benefits or medical benefits. The employer answered, arguing that the claimant's injuries did not arise in the scope of her employment. Following the disputed-claim hearing, the workers' compensation judge ruled that the claimant suffered an injury in the course and scope of her employment and ordered the employer to pay workers' compensation and medical benefits. In addition, the workers' compensation judge ruled that the employer failed to reasonably controvert the claimant's cause of action and assessed penalties and attorney's fees accordingly. The employer appeals. For the following reasons, we affirm.

Factual and Procedural Background

The record reflects that Margaret Fontenot, the claimant herein, began working for Wal-Mart in late September 1993. Ms. Fontenot testified at the disputed-claim hearing in the matter that on November 26, 2001, the date of the accident at issue, she arrived at the Wal-Mart Supercenter on Highway 14 in Lake Charles, Louisiana, at five o'clock in the morning for her shift in the bakery department. She explained that one of her duties each morning was to take bread from the bakery to the deli department for display. Ms. Fontenot testified that the last thing that she remembers from the day of the accident was that shortly before eight o'clock that morning, she said hello to a co-worker while taking a load of bread to the deli. The record indicates that while Ms. Fontenot was in the process of delivering the bread, she fell to the floor and hit her head. One of Ms. Fontenot's co-workers testified that she saw Ms. Fontenot fall to the floor as if she had fainted. Several others testified that when they arrived on the scene after Ms. Fontenot fell, it appeared that she was having a seizure. The record reflects that she was bleeding profusely from the head and was moaning in pain.

Ms. Fontenot was promptly taken to the hospital, where emergency surgery was performed. Ms. Fontenot testified that it was her understanding that she had cracked her skull in three places and that the presence of four blood clots in the area required that surgery be performed immediately. She stated that when she awoke five days after the accident, her treating physician informed her that although her surgery was successful, he believed that an infection had developed that would require a second surgery. Ms. Fontenot indicated that during this second procedure, an infected bone was removed from her skull. She noted at the disputed-claim hearing that, although she was still weak, her condition improved afterwards. On May 26, 2002, Ms. Fontenot began to experience sharp pain in her right leg. She went to the hospital, where she was informed that the second surgery was not completely successful in removing the infection, which had spread to her leg, penetrating the bone below the knee. A third surgery was then performed on June 6, 2002. Since then, Ms. Fontenot testified, she has suffered headaches and dizziness, which have kept her from activities such as housework, and she had fallen four times in the months preceding the disputed-claim hearing. She likewise testified that she has not been able to drive since the accident. She stated that as of the time of the disputed-claim hearing, she was still receiving medical treatment as a result of her injury and the ensuing infections. Ms. Fontenot indicated that although she desires to return to work, her doctors have not yet released her for this purpose.¹

On January 14, 2002, Ms. Fontenot filed a disputed-claim form in which she alleged that Wal-Mart had neither paid workers' compensation benefits nor authorized medical treatment stemming from the November 26, 2001 accident. Wal-Mart answered, asserting that Ms. Fontenot was not injured during the course and scope of her employment and that her injuries were not related to the alleged work-related accident. Moreover, Wal-Mart claimed that Ms. Fontenot was able to perform light-duty work, which would preclude her from receiving workers' compensation benefits.

The matter proceeded to hearing on July 2, 2003. In a judgment rendered on September 10, 2003, the workers' compensation judge ruled that Ms. Fontenot had proven that her injury was sustained while in the course and scope of her employment and that she was entitled to wage and medical benefits. In addition, the workers' compensation judge awarded penalties and attorney's fees, finding that Wal-Mart failed to reasonably controvert Ms. Fontenot's claim.

Wal-Mart appeals the workers' compensation judge's ruling, asserting the following assignments of error:

1. The workers' compensation judge committed manifest error in determining that Ms. Fontenot was entitled to workers' compensation benefits when she did not prove by a preponderance of the evidence that a work-related accident and injury occurred during the course and scope of her employment; and

2. The workers' compensation judge committed manifest error in awarding attorney's fees and penalties to Ms. Fontenot in accordance with the finding that Wal-Mart did not reasonably controvert her claim in that there were substantial legitimate disputes involved in the matter.

Discussion

Entitlement to Benefits

Louisiana Revised Statutes 23:1031 provides that a claimant may receive workers' compensation benefits from an "accident arising out of and in the course of his employment." The claimant may recover after proving, by a preponderance of the evidence, that the accident occurred "on the job site and that an injury was sustained." Sterling v. Asplundh Tree Expert Co., 03-266, p. 5 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/1/03), 856 So.2d 125, 128 (quoting Bryan v. Allstate Timber Co., 98-840, pp. 3-4 (La.App. 3 Cir. 12/16/98), 724 So.2d 853, 855). A workers' compensation judge's findings of fact are reviewed on appeal pursuant to the manifest-error standard. Nabors Drilling USA v. Davis, 03-0136 (La.10/21/03), 857 So.2d 407. This standard is likewise employed when an appellant raises questions as to the sufficiency of the evidence in the proceedings below. Id.

Wal-Mart contends on appeal that the workers' compensation judge erred in finding that Ms. Fontenot proved by a preponderance of the evidence that she sustained an accident in the course and scope of her employment. It insists that although Ms. Fontenot suffered an accident while working at Wal-Mart, she did not suffer an accident in the "scope" of her employment. In support of its position on appeal, Wal-Mart underscores Ms. Fontenot's testimony that approximately twenty years before the accident at issue, she suffered two grand mal seizures while at home. Accordingly, it argues that Ms. Fontenot's accident was caused by her epilepsy, not by any risk associated with her employment.

Wal-Mart argues that the decision of the Louisiana Supreme Court in the matter of Kern v. Southport-Mill, 174 La. 432, 141 So. 19 (1932), is applicable in the present appeal. It contends that in Kem, the supreme court held that an accident arises out of employment when it results from a risk to which an employee was subjected in the course of his employment. It further cites Kern for the proposition that the mere occurrence of an accident on the job is insufficient to establish the crucial nexus between an employment risk and the subject accident. Wal-Mart maintains that Ms. Fontenot has only proven that her own physical infirmities caused the accident at issue, not any risk of employment.

Our review of the relevant jurisprudence indicates that, in matters similar to the instant appeal, Louisiana courts have been reluctant to deny workers' compensation benefits to claimants whose pre-existing medical conditions may have contributed to their work-related accidents. For example, in Guidry v. Serigny, 378 So.2d 938 (La.1979), a trial court declined to award compensation benefits to a cook who had fallen en route from the storage area of a restaurant to its kitchen, basing its decision upon evidence that the claimant had fallen due to a heart attack or a fainting spell instead of as a result of a waxed floor. The court of appeal affirmed.

On review, the Louisiana Supreme Court reversed. It observed that the trial court denied benefits because the cook could not demonstrate a causal connexity between her employment and the heart attack or fainting spell that caused her to fall. The supreme court disagreed with the trial court's reasoning, pointing out that "the plaintiff's accident was not the fainting spell, heart attack or slip which may have caused her to fall. Plaintiff's accident was the fall itself and this is so regardless of the precipitating reason therefor." Guidry, 378 So.2d at 940. The court then turned to a determination of whether the accident "arose out of" the claimant's employment, applying the standard as stated in Kem:

The inquiry is two-fold. First, it must be determined whether the employee was then engaged in his employer's business and secondly, did the necessities of the employer's business reasonably require that the employee be at the place of the accident at the time of the accident. Kern v. Southport Mill, 174 La. 432, 141 So. 19 (1932). Applying...