Four Star Fabricators, Inc. v. Barrett

• Decision Date: 28 July 1994
• Docket Number: No. 93A02-9402-EX-54,93A02-9402-EX-54
• Citation: 638 N.E.2d 792
• Parties: FOUR STAR FABRICATORS, INC., Appellant-Defendant, v. Phillip E. BARRETT, Appellee-Plaintiff.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

Page 792

638 N.E.2d 792

FOUR STAR FABRICATORS, INC., Appellant-Defendant, v. Phillip E. BARRETT, Appellee-Plaintiff.

No. 93A02-9402-EX-54.

Court of Appeals of Indiana First District.

July 28, 1994.

Jeffrey B. Kolb, Emison Doolittle Kolb & Roellgen, Vincennes, for appellant.

Matt Parmenter, Sturm, Smith & Parmenter, Vincennes, for appellee.

STATEMENT OF THE CASE

NAJAM, Judge.

We are asked to decide whether, in light of recent developments in Indiana worker's compensation law concerning cumulative trauma injuries, an injury is compensable where a degenerative physical condition develops in the workplace and later manifests itself as a debilitating injury following an episode outside the workplace. Four Star Fabricators, Inc. appeals from a decision of the Worker's Compensation Board in favor its employee, Phillip E. Barrett, who sought benefits for an injury to his back. Four Star raises three issues for our review which we restate as follows:

1. Whether there was sufficient evidence to support the Board's determination 2. Whether the Board erred in its admission of a statement made by one of Barrett's physicians.

that Barrett's injury was causally connected to his employment at Four Star.

We affirm.

FACTS

Barrett was employed at Four Star from 1984 until 1992 as a burning machine operator. Barrett's position required that he maneuver and lift 100 to 200 pound steel plates from which he cut different items of heavy steel. In order to cut steel plates, Barrett had the aid of several lifting devices, including "pry bars" to maneuver steel plates on his burning table, "duck feet" which utilized hooks to lift the various, finished items onto a pallet on the floor next to his table, and magnetic "cranes" also used to lift steel items. It was often necessary that Barrett manually lift or move some steel pieces because the lifting devices were ineffective with those items.

In 1988, Barrett was injured when, while lifting a 1 1/4 inch piece of steel plate with duck feet, he lost control of the plate and the duck feet "swung around in a circle," striking him in the back. Barrett sought medical treatment for his pain from the injury and missed three days of work. Thereafter, Four Star obtained a contract with Alcoa in late 1991 or early 1992 which required a substantial increase in Four Star's output of fabricated steel products. Barrett's workload likewise increased in the wake of the Alcoa contract, which included an increase in his lifting and bending. Barrett once again began experiencing back pain while performing his work.

On April 27, 1992, Barrett was at home when he stooped to pick up his infant child and felt a sharp pain and something "pop" in his back. Barrett was diagnosed with a herniated disc and did not return to Four Star until November of 1992. Four Star subsequently laid off Barrett, and Barrett applied for and was granted worker's compensation for his back condition. We will state additional facts in our discussion where needed.

DISCUSSION AND DECISION

Standard of Review

In reviewing a decision of the full Worker's Compensation Board, we are bound by the Board's findings of fact and may only consider errors in the Board's conclusions of law. Duvall v. ICI Americas, Inc. (1993), Ind.App., 621 N.E.2d 1122, 1124 (citing IND.CODE § 22-3-4-8(b)). "We cannot disturb the Board's factual determinations unless we conclude that the evidence is undisputed and leads inescapably to a contrary result." Id. In other words, in our review of the Board's factfindings we must disregard all evidence unfavorable to the decision and consider only the evidence and reasonable inferences therefrom which supports those findings. Id.; Glenn v. Board of Comm'rs (1990), Ind.App., 552 N.E.2d 485, 486-87. While we do not owe this same measure of deference to the Board's legal conclusions, its decision will not be disturbed unless the Board incorrectly interpreted the Worker's Compensation Act. See Duvall, 621 N.E.2d at 1124.

Issue One: Sufficiency of Causation Evidence

The primary thrust of Four Star's appeal is that the evidence does not support the Board's determination that a causal relationship existed between Barrett's injury and his employment at Four Star. Specifically, Four Star contends there was insufficient evidence to establish that Barrett's back injury arose out of and occurred in the course of his employment with Four Star because Barrett simply "suffered an accident at home unrelated to his employment." Brief of Appellant at 16.

The Worker's Compensation Act authorizes the payment of compensation to employees for "personal injury or death by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment." IND.CODE § 22-3-2-2(a). Thus, for an injury to be compensable under the Act, the injury must both arise "out of" the employment and arise "in the course of" the employment. Both requirements must be fulfilled before worker's compensation is awarded, and neither alone is sufficient. See Olinger Const. Co. v. Mosbey (1981), Ind.App., 427 N.E.2d 910, 912; Marshall v. Tribune-Star Publishing Co. (1968), 142 Ind.App. 556, 561, 236 N.E.2d 508, 512, trans. denied. "Arising out of" refers to the origin and cause of the injury, while "in the course of" means the time, place and circumstances under which the injury took place. Fields v. Cummins Employees Fed. Credit Union (1989), Ind.App., 540 N.E.2d 631, 635; Skinner v. Martin (1983), Ind.App., 455 N.E.2d 1168, 1170.

Four Star places undue emphasis on the fact that Barrett's diagnosis with a herniated disc and resulting worker's compensation claim arose only after he suffered an episode of acute back pain in the home. We cannot agree that the place of this one episode of back pain determines whether Barrett's injury occurred in the course of his employment at Four Star. In Evans v. Yankeetown Dock Corp. (1986), Ind., 491 N.E.2d 969, our supreme court clarified the requirement of an accidental injury under the Worker's Compensation Act and held that an injury is accidental "when it is the unexpected consequence of the usual exertion or exposure of the particular employee's job." Id. at 974. The Evans decision represents a shift under the Worker's Compensation Act from an inquiry into whether an injury is the result of an accident as a discrete event to whether the injury is accidental or unexpected. See id.

In Union City Body Co. v. Lambdin (1991), Ind.App., 569 N.E.2d 373, this court interpreted Evans and noted that an injury may be compensable under the Act if it "happens day after day on the job and the combination of all the days produce [sic] the injurious result." Id. at 374. Accordingly, when a disabling condition is produced by repeatedly performing the same job function over several years, the claimant is not required to show the resultant injury and damage "was due to one particular blow which produced the particular injury." Lovely v. Cooper Indus. Prod., Inc. (1981), Ind.App., 429 N.E.2d 274, 278-79. An employee may have a compensable worker's compensation claim when his condition gradually develops from the cumulative effect of his work activities. See Duvall v. ICI Americas, Inc. (1993), Ind.App., 621 N.E.2d 1122, 1126.

Thus, our courts have recognized that the definition of an "accidental injury" under the Worker's Compensation Act includes those injuries which occur incrementally over time. In other words, the repetitive motions required by the employee's job functions may give rise to a compensable injury, even though the injury is not attributable to any discrete and identifiable date, time or event. See Duvall, 621 N.E.2d at 1126 (carpal tunnel syndrome resulting from repetitive, day-to-day motions required at job); Lambdin, 569 N.E.2d at 373-74 (employee's day after day bending, twisting, stooping and lifting while working combined to produce injurious result); American Maize Prod. Co. v. Nichiporchik (1940), 108 Ind.App. 502, 511, 29 N.E.2d 801, 805 (traumatic concussions delivered to employee's hands by air hammer over long period of time produced Dupuytren's contraction).

In determining whether an employee's "cumulative trauma" injury arose "in the course of" employment, the focus is not merely on the place where the injury manifested itself. Cf. Holland-St. Louis Sugar Co. v. Shraluka (1917), 64 Ind.App. 545, 550, 116 N.E. 330, 331 (accident or injury may arise out of or in the course of employment even when employee is not actually working at time of accident or injury). Rather, where the evidence demonstrates that a cumulative trauma injury developed during the performance of the employee's job functions, the injury occurs "in the course of" employment, whether it first manifests itself in or out of the workplace. This conclusion is consistent with both our supreme court's interpretation of the accidental injury requirement in Evans and the humane purpose of the Worker's Compensation Act which requires a broad and liberal construction of the phrase "in the course of employment." See Goldstone v. Kozma (1971), 149 Ind.App. 626, 631-32, 274 N.E.2d 304, 307.

The particular facts and circumstances of each case determine whether an injury arose out of and in the course of employment. Stanley v. Riggs Equipment Co. (1961), 133 Ind.App. 86, 90, 178 N.E.2d 766, 768. Here, the evidence shows that Barrett's employment at Four Star required that he maneuver and lift steel items weighing approximately 100 to 200 pounds with the aid of lifting devices. Barrett's job also involved repetitive bending at the waist. Barrett first injured his back in 1988 while working for Four Star. Barrett was absent from work for three days as a result of that episode. Barrett testified that the pain in his back resumed in 1992 when his workload increased. According to Barrett, his back pain was constant until he experienced the episode of acute back pain in his home in April of 1992.

Physicians who examined Barrett corroborated Barrett's claims and the...