Dehart v. Betty Breaux Personnel, Inc.

535 So. 2d 456, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 2213, 1988 WL 113195
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 27, 1988
DocketNo. 88-CA-0591
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 535 So. 2d 456 (Dehart v. Betty Breaux Personnel, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dehart v. Betty Breaux Personnel, Inc., 535 So. 2d 456, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 2213, 1988 WL 113195 (La. Ct. App. 1988).

Opinions

KLEES, Judge.

Plaintiff, Edward Dehart, instituted this worker’s compensation suit against his employer, Betty Breaux Personnel, Inc., (“Betty Breaux Personnel”) seeking total and permanent disability benefits, medical expenses and statutory penalties and attorney’s fees as a result of a work related accident. From the trial court’s judgment in favor of plaintiff, both plaintiff and defendant appeal.

On August 15, 1984, plaintiff was employed by defendant, Betty Breaux Personnel, a labor service. Weiner Cort Furniture Rental Company, (“Weiner Cort”) obtained several Betty Breaux Personnel employees, including the plaintiff, to move furniture into the dormitories at Tulane University. Mr. Rick Shattuck, an employee of Weiner Cort, supervised both Weiner Cort’s employees and the men from Betty Breaux Personnel in performing the contracted work which took several days. At the end of the last day on the job with a few pieces of furniture left to be moved, Mr. Shattuck took some of the workers into the dormitory and told the others to remain outside by the truck. While waiting by the truck to return to Weiner Cort, plaintiff climbed a pear tree right outside the dormitory in order to get a pear to eat. A branch broke and the plaintiff fell to the ground, breaking both wrists and lacerating his head. Plaintiff was taken to Charity Hospital, had both wrists operated on and was released on October 22, 1984. Subsequently, plaintiff filed suit against Betty Breaux Personnel for total and permanent disability benefits contending that he was unable to perform any type of work because of wrist problems. Betty Breaux Personnel impleaded Weiner Cort for indemnification and/or contribution.

After a trial on the matter, the judge entered judgment for the plaintiff awarding him rehabilitation and temporary total disability benefits but denying his request for statutory penalties and attorney’s fees.

The issues raised on appeal are: 1) whether or not the plaintiff was injured in an accident arising out of his employment; 2) whether or not plaintiff was entitled to vocational rehabilitation and disability benefits; 3) whether plaintiff was a full-time or part-time employee of Betty Breaux Personnel and; 4) whether or not plaintiff is entitled to penalties and attorney’s fees for defendant’s failure to pay workmen’s compensation benefits.

In his Preliminary Reasons for Judgment, the trial judge stated that the plaintiff’s conduct and injury were analagous to the “horseplay” line of cases in the Louisiana jurisprudence, and thus, the injury arose out of the plaintiff’s employment. The defendants contend the trial judge’s finding is erroneous and that the plaintiff’s injury was the result of voluntary conduct unrelated to his job and did not arise out of his employment. The criteria for payment of compensation is set forth in LA-R.S. 23:1031:

“If an employee ... received personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, his employer shall pay compensation in the amounts, on the conditions, and to the person or persons hereinafter designated.”

The terms arising out of, and in the course of are not synonymous. The former suggests an inquiry into the character or origin of the risk, while the latter brings into focus the time and place relationship between the risk and the employment. The [458]*458two requirements cannot, however, be considered in isolation from each other. A strong showing by the claimant with reference to the arising-out-of requirement may compensate for a relatively weak showing on the during-course-of requirement, or vice versa. Furthermore, each case must be determined from its own facts. Lisonbee v. Chicago Mill & Lumber Company, 278 So.2d 5 (La.1973).

In the instant matter, the second requirement, during the course of employment, is satisfied. The remaining question is whether the arising out of requirement is satisfied. The record indicates that the plaintiff and other employees were told to wait outside by the truck while their supervisor, Mr. Shattuck and other workers finished moving the last few pieces of furniture into the dormitory. It was at the end of the day and the plaintiff and the other workers were ready to return to Weiner Cort. The plaintiff testified that he was hungry because he forgot his lunch and had nothing to eat the entire day. He said that during the course of the work week, several of the workers had picked pears and eaten them, so he decided he would pick one and eat it while they waited. Mr. Shattuck testified that he warned a group of the workers to stay away from the tree because Tulane officials voiced complaints to him about the workers picking the pears. He further testified that he could not remember if the plaintiff was present among the group he warned.

The courts have consistently recognized that, during idle periods in the course of employment, working men will engage in jocular activities with fellow employees. There is general accord in the decisions that accidents occurring during horseplay in the course of employment also arise out of employment. Singleton v. Younger Brothers, Inc., 247 So.2d 273 (La.App. 4th Cir.), writ denied, 249 So.2d 202 (La.1971). It should also be noted that in those workmen’s compensation matters where ‘horseplay’ and ‘fooling around’ have been judicially tolerated, the acceptable incidents have occurred while the workers are on the job or in the process of leaving the employer’s premises after having finished the day’s work.

Under the circumstances in this matter, it is reasonable to anticipate that horseplay can occur, as the workers normally would not expect to stand by silent and still while waiting for their supervisor and the other employees to finish moving the last few pieces of furniture. It is also reasonable to anticipate that one or more of the workers would attempt to pick fruit out of the tree during an idle period because there was ample evidence that the workers had shown an interest in the tree while working in the Tulane dormitories. That risk, being expectable under such conditions, is a risk which arises out of employment. We conclude that the trial judge was correct in finding that the accident arose out of and was in the course of plaintiff’s employment.

The second assertion of error raised by the defendants is that the trial court improperly awarded the plaintiff rehabilitation and temporary total disability benefits.

Recently, we addressed the issue of whether a claimant was entitled to total disability benefits and rehabilitation services in Harris v. Rumold, 518 So.2d 9 (La. App. 4th Cir.1987). In that case, we stated:

When claiming a total disability, whether permanent or temporary, the plaintiff must prove his inability to engage in any gainful occupation whether or not the same or similar to that in which he was customarily engaged when injured. Bailey [v. Zurich American Ins. Co., 503 So.2d 611 (La.App. 4th Cir. 1987) ], supra. Once the trial court has made factual findings as to disability, the reviewing court must give great weight to those determinations. Virgil v. American Guar. & Liability Ins., 507 So.2d 825 (La.1987). Reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact by the trial court will not be disturbed on appeal unless such findings are manifestly erroneous. Anderson v. Meeker Sugar Co-Op., Inc., 476 So.2d 1156 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1985); Virgil, supra.

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535 So. 2d 456, 1988 La. App. LEXIS 2213, 1988 WL 113195, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dehart-v-betty-breaux-personnel-inc-lactapp-1988.