Carolina Appeals Court Again Finds That Lifting Large Patient is a Work Accident

One month after the North Carolina Court of Appeals found that a health care worker’s slight deviation from her normal work routine constituted an accident that caused an injury, the court made a similar ruling this week.

In Genevieve Vance vs. Laurels Healthcare and PMA Companies, the appeals court reversed an Industrial Commission ruling that denied a physical therapy assistant’s workers’ compensation claim. The woman injured her knee in 2018 when she attempted to get a 300-pound patient to his feet for therapy.

North Carolina’s workers’ comp statute, unlike those in most other states, requires that a claimant prove that she was injured, not only during the course and scope of employment, but also that it was an “accident” that caused the injury. An accident has been defined by statute and case law as an unexpected event that involves the interruption of the normal work routine.

In the Vance case, Vance testified that moving a large patient is often, but not always, a two-person job. On the day of the injury, she attempted to raise the patient from his wheelchair without another worker’s assistance, which the court said constituted an unusual event and an accident. She later required arthroscopic surgery for a meniscus tear.

The employer had denied the claim, but a deputy comp commissioner awarded Vance benefits. The employer and insurer appealed to the full Industrial Commission and the commission reversed. It noted that the injury was not the result of an interruption in work routine or unusual conditions, and was part of Vance’s normal work program.

The appeals court disagreed and said some of the commission’s conclusions were not supported by the facts of the case.

“Accordingly, we reverse the opinion and award of the commission and remand the case for entry of an opinion and award concluding that plaintiff was not performing her usual job duties in the usual manner and that plaintiff’s extra exertion caused an unusual condition and interruption of plaintiff’s normal work routine, and awarding benefits,” Judge Jeff Carpenter wrote in the opinion, posted Jan. 4.

It is well-settled law in North Carolina that ” ‘extra exertion by the employee, resulting in injury, may qualify as an injury by accident,’ when ‘the extra and unusual exertion was accidental and produced the original [injury] …’ ” the court said, citing previous appeal court rulings.

One month earlier, the court made a similar ruling in a case with similar circumstances. A nurse had attempted to move an obese patient with only one other assistant, instead of the usual three. A deputy commissioner granted benefits, the full Industrial Commission agreed, and the appeals court affirmed.