United Parcel Service of America v. Fetterman
| Decision Date | 27 November 1985 |
| Docket Number | No. 841704,841704 |
| Citation | 230 Va. 257,336 S.E.2d 892 |
| Parties | UNITED PARCEL SERVICE OF AMERICA, et al. v. Randall F. FETTERMAN. Record |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
Susan A. Evans (Siciliano, Ellis, Sheridan, Dyer & Boccarosse, Fairfax, on brief), for appellants.
Julia H. Butler (Ashcraft & Gerel, Alexandria, on brief), for appellee.
Present: All the Justices.
The question presented in this workers' compensation case is whether the claimant, a parcel delivery service employee, sustained an accidental injury arising out of the employment when he strained his back while bending over to tie his shoe.
Randall F. Fetterman sustained a lumbosacral strain on March 19, 1984, during the course of his employment as a driver for United Parcel Service of America. The claimant's duties included loading, unloading, and delivering packages weighing an average of 35 pounds.
On the day in question, the claimant was unloading packages from his truck. He was reaching across the rear of the truck and pulling parcels to place them on a hand cart when he noticed that his right shoe was untied. He raised his foot to the back of the truck, bent over to tie the shoe, and felt acute pain in his lower back.
At the hearing level, a deputy commissioner denied the claim for compensation. She decided that the injury did not meet the requirement of arising out of the employment because it could not fairly be traced to the employment as a contributing proximate cause and it did not follow as a natural incident of the work. The hearing commissioner concluded that the claimant's conduct in bending over to tie his shoe was not a risk of the employment but, rather, was merely coincidental with the employment.
Upon review, the full Commission unanimously decided the claim was compensable. The Commission disagreed with the deputy's reasoning and opined that "the work environment certainly had something to do with the manner in which the employee went about tying his shoe and this was no doubt necessary for him to continue his work." On appeal, the employer and its insurance carrier contend the Commission erred. We agree.
An accident arises out of the employment when there is a causal connection between the claimant's injury and the conditions under which the employer requires the work to be performed. R & T Investments v. Johns, 228 Va. 249, 252, 321 S.E.2d 287, 289 (1984). Under this test, an injury arises "out of" the employment when it has followed as a natural incident of the work and has been a result of the exposure occasioned by the nature of the employment. Excluded is an injury which comes from a hazard to which the employee would have been equally exposed apart from the employment. The causative danger must be peculiar to the work, incidental to the character of the...
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...the claimant's injury and the conditions under which the employer requires the work to be performed." United Parcel Serv. of Am. v. Fetterman , 230 Va. 257, 258, 336 S.E.2d 892 (1985). These principles, applied here, point persuasively to the conclusion that plaintiff's injury arose from hi......
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...248 Va. 101, 107, 444 S.E.2d 705, 708 (1994) (quoting Johnson, 237 Va. at 183, 376 S.E.2d at 75, and United Parcel Serv. v. Fetterman, 230 Va. 257, 258, 336 S.E.2d 892, 893 (1985)). An “ ‘actual risk’ of employment” is “not merely the risk of being injured while at work.” Id. Reversing one ......
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...performed at work which trigger preexisting conditions do not satisfy the legal causation requirement. United Parcel Service v. Fetterman, 230 Va. 257, 336 S.E.2d 892 (1985) (bending over to tie shoelace); Southern Bell Tel. & Tel. Co. v. McCook, 355 So.2d 1166 (Fla.1977) (employee, while s......
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...S.E. 684, 686 (1938) (quoting In re McNicol, 215 Mass. 497, 499, 102 N.E. 697, 697 (1913)); see also United Parcel Serv. v. Fetterman, 230 Va. 257, 258-59, 336 S.E.2d 892, 893 (1985). The injury must have "followed as a natural incident of the work" and resulted from an "exposure occasioned......