CITRUS MEMORIAL HOSPITAL AND AETNA CASUALTY & SURETY COMPANY, APPELLANTS,
v.
VIOLETTE DENISE CABRERA, APPELLEE
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A registered nurse claimed workers' compensation benefits for a wrist fracture suffered when she slipped and fell on a commode at work. The court affirmed the workers' compensation order finding the injury compensable, distinguishing the case from prior precedent involving idiopathic conditions.
The court held the injury was compensable. The accident arose out of and in the course of employment because it resulted from a physical fall with external force, not from an idiopathic condition, and the fact that the employee was attending to a personal need (using the restroom) does not render the injury noncompensable under the personal comfort doctrine.
[1] An injury sustained while tending to a personal need at work is compensable if it arises out of and in the course of employment.
[2] An idiopathic condition that results in injury to a worker does not arise out of employment unless the employment contributes to the risk or aggravates the injury.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“where an employee collapses solely due to an internal physical malfunction, the resulting physical damage does not arise out of the employment.”
Establishes the principle that idiopathic conditions causing injury without external force do not result in compensable workers' compensation claims.
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAppellee, a registered nurse, fractured her right wrist while using the restroom at her workplace when her right foot slipped on the commode and she f…
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McCORD, Judge.
Appellants, employer/carrier, appeal from a workers’ compensation order which found that appellee suffered a compensable accident. We affirm.
Appellee, a registered nurse, fractured her right wrist while using the restroom facilities at work when her right foot slipped and she fell on the commode, breaking her fall with her right hand. Appellants contested her claim for compensation, asserting that her injury did not arise out of and in the course of her employment. They rely on Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company v. McCook, 355 So. 2d 1166 (Fla.1977), to support their contention. In McCook, the claimant aggravated a preexisting back condition while using a restroom at work when she reached over to pick up a roll of tissue paper and suddenly experienced a sharp pain in her back. The court in that case stated:
. . . where an employee collapses solely due to an internal physical malfunction, the resulting physical damage does not arise out of the employment. [Federal Elec. Corporation v. Best, 274 So. 2d 886 (Fla.1973).]
The court thereupon found that although McCook suffered an “accident” which occurred “in the course of employment,” the accident she suffered was not one “arising out of . . . employment.” The court followed the “universal principle of workmen’s compensation law that an idiopathic condition which results in injury to the worker does not ‘arise out of’ employment unless the employment in some way contributes to the risk or aggravates the injury.” The court noted the distinction “between physical damage suffered solely as a result of an idiopathic condition, and that suffered because of the combination of an idiopathic condition and the work place.”
The McCook case is distinguishable from the case at bar. Here, there is no evidence that appellee’s accident was caused by an idiopathic condition which manifested itself while appellee was on the job. To the contrary, appellee slipped and fell on her right wrist with such force as to cause a fracture. The fact that appellee was tending to a personal need when her accident occurred does not render her injury noncompensable. The Supreme Court, in denying compensability in McCook on the particular factual basis presented there, recognized the validity of the following principle:
2. The fact that McCook was attending to a personal matter at the time of the accident is irrelevant, since it was incidental to employment and therefore a matter within the “personal comfort doctrine”. See 1 A. Larson, The Law of Workmen’s Compensation §§ 21.00, and 21.53 (1972).
AFFIRMED.
MILLS, C. J., and THOMPSON, J., concur.
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Previewing 3 of 4 citing cases — full citator treatment, depth of discussion, and citing context are member features.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceAuthorities Cited
- S. Bell Tel. & Tel. Co. v. McCOOK, 355 So. 2d 1166 (Fla. 1977)
- Butts v. Cent. & S. Flood Control Dist., 274 So. 2d 886 (Fla. 1973)