Deffenbaugh Industries & Travelers Insurance v. Angus

852 S.W.2d 804, 313 Ark. 100, 1993 Ark. LEXIS 297
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedMay 10, 1993
Docket92-838
StatusPublished
Cited by34 cases

This text of 852 S.W.2d 804 (Deffenbaugh Industries & Travelers Insurance v. Angus) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Deffenbaugh Industries & Travelers Insurance v. Angus, 852 S.W.2d 804, 313 Ark. 100, 1993 Ark. LEXIS 297 (Ark. 1993).

Opinions

Steele Hays, Justice.

In this Workers’ Compensation case the claimant, Earl Angus (appellee) sustained injuries when a tornado destroyed a mobile home where he resided on the premises of his employer, Deffenbaugh Industries (appellant). The Commission’s finding that the injuries were compensable was affirmed by the Court of Appeals by a vote of three to three. In Deffenbaugh Industries, Inc. v. Angus, 39 Ark. App. 24, 832 S.W.2d 869 (1992) the Court of Appeals adopted the positional risk doctrine to allow compensation for an employee injured by neutral risks. We granted the petition for review of Deffenbaugh. and its carrier Traveler’s Insurance Company pursuant to our Rule 29(6) because of the tie vote. We affirm and apply the increased risk doctrine in so doing.

Earl Angus was the manager of West Memphis Industrial Oil Services, a subsidiary of Deffenbaugh Industries. Appellants’ facility was engaged in the business of collecting and reselling waste oil, operating twenty-four hours per day. Trucks bringing waste oil to the facility arrived at odd hours. The parties stipulated that all of Mr. Angus’ duties of employment were required to be performed as needed, twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven (7) days a week.

Earl Angus and his wife entered into a rental agreement with his employer pursuant to which the company purchased a trailer and placed it on the premises of the bulk plant so the family could reside there. This was a condition of his employment. A zoning ordinance of the City of West Memphis prohibited a residence in a commercial area and Angus obtained a zoning variance to permit the mobile home in a commercial zone. Although Angus conducted business from an office in another building, a telephone was installed in the mobile home so that he could be reached by company drivers or customers at any time.

One the night of December 14, 1987, Angus went to the mobile home while awaiting a truck driven by Billy Harris. He had been there approximately fifteen minutes and was eating dinner with his family when a tornado struck the mobile home. Mrs. Angus was killed and Mr. Angus and his daughter were severely injured. Billy Harris arrived several minutes after the storm and discovered the Angus family.

The Workers’ Compensation Commission affirmed the Administrative Law Judge’s decision that Angus suffered compensable injuries arising from and in the course of his employment. The Commission found that the conditions and obligations imposed upon Angus by his employer required him to maintain a constant presence on the premises and exposed him to the risk of the danger which caused his injury.

The Court of Appeals affirmed the Commission’s decision and accepted the positional risk doctrine to provide compensation for employees who are injured by neutral risks but declined to draw a fine distinction between types of risks. The court held that Angus’ injuries “arose out of his employment” because “but for” the employment, he would not have been in his home on his employer’s premises at the time the tornado struck the area.

On appeal of a worker’s compensation case from the Court of Appeals to this court, the evidence must be viewed in the light most favorable to the Commission’s decision and its decision must be upheld if it is supported by substantial evidence. Hall's Cleaners v. Wortham, 311 Ark. 103, 842 S.W.2d 7 (1992). Substantial evidence exists if reasonable minds could have reached the same conclusion. Wade v. Mr. C. Cavenaugh’s, 298 Ark. 363, 768 S.W.2d 521 (1989). Thus, before the appellate court may reverse a decision by the Commission, it must be convinced that fair-minded persons with the same facts before them could not have reached the conclusion arrived at by the Commission. International Paper Co. v. Tuberville, 302 Ark. 22, 786 S.W.2d 830 (1990); Howard v. Arkansas Power & Light Co., 20 Ark. App. 98, 724 S.W.2d 193 (1987).

Thus, the issue now before us is whether there is substantial evidence to support the Commission’s finding that Angus sustained injuries “arising out of and in the course of his employment.” A claimant seeking benefits must prove by a preponderance of the evidence that the injury arose out of and in the course of the employment. Arkansas Dep’t of Correction v. Glover, 35 Ark. App. 32, 812 S.W.2d 692 (1991). “Arising out of the employment” refers to the origin or cause of the accident while the phrase “in the course of the employment” refers to the time, place, and circumstances under which the injury occurred. Jones v. City of Imboden, 39 Ark. App. 19, 832 S.W.2d 866 (1992); Gerber Products v. McDonald, 15 Ark. App. 226, 691 S.W.2d 879 (1985).

The appellants first argue that Mr. Angus was not “in the course and scope” of his employment because he was not performing any job related duties at the time he was injured. Appellants contend that because Angus was eating dinner when the tornado struck, it does not meet the time, place and circumstances requirements of being in the course of employment.

With respect to course of employment, the test requires that the injury occur within the time and space boundaries of the employment, while the employee is carrying out the employer’s purpose or advancing the employer’s interests directly or indirectly. City of El Dorado v. Sartor, 21 Ark. App. 143, 729 S.W.2d 430 (1987) (citing 1 A Larson, Workmen’s Compensation Law §§ 14.00, 20.00 (1985)).

In applying the foregoing test, we affirm the Court of Appeals decision that there was substantial evidence that Angus was injured while in the course of his employment. Angus was required to live on the premises as a condition of his employment and was on call twenty-four (24) hours a day, seven days a week. Because he was continuously on duty, Angus qualifies as a resident employee. As such, “the entire period of his presence on the premises is deemed included in the course of employment.” See 1 A Larson, Law of Workmen’s Compensation § 24.00 (1992). Appellants obviously benefitted from Angus’s accessibility to the plant and the security his presence provided. In addition, Angus was waiting for the Harris truck to arrive and thus the conditions of his employment made it incumbent on him to remain in an area of risk. Therefore, we conclude the conditions of employment and the imminent arrival of the Harris truck demonstrate that Angus was in the course of his employment when he was injured by the tornado.

Appellants next argue the injuries did not arise out of the employment because a tornado is an “Act of God” which has no known cause.

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Bluebook (online)
852 S.W.2d 804, 313 Ark. 100, 1993 Ark. LEXIS 297, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/deffenbaugh-industries-travelers-insurance-v-angus-ark-1993.