Gaston v. Steadley Co.

69 S.W.3d 158, 2002 Mo. App. LEXIS 438, 2002 WL 342196
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 6, 2002
DocketNo. 24322
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 69 S.W.3d 158 (Gaston v. Steadley Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gaston v. Steadley Co., 69 S.W.3d 158, 2002 Mo. App. LEXIS 438, 2002 WL 342196 (Mo. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinion

JOHN E. PARRISH, Judge.

Steadley Co. (employer) and Hartford Insurance Co. (insurer) appeal a workers’ compensation award from the Labor & Industrial Relations Commission (the commission) to Jeremy Gaston (claimant). This court affirms.

An award by the commission will be reversed on appeal only if there is no substantial evidence to support the award or the award is clearly contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Wilmeth v. TMI, Inc., 26 S.W.3d 476, 478 (Mo.App.2000). An appellate court views the evidence and all reasonable inferences therefrom in the light most favorable to the commission’s award. Id. Deference is given to the commission on issues of witness credibility, evidentiary conflicts, weight of evidence and factual inferences. Lorenz v. Sweetheart Cup Co., Inc., 60 S.W.3d 677, 679 (Mo.App.2001).

On December 7, 1995, claimant was on his way to work at employer’s plant in Carthage, Missouri. The plant is located on River Street. It encompasses a city block. Employer’s facilities include a factory, a warehouse, a storage area, and three parking areas. Two of the parking areas, a gravel parking lot and a parking shed, are separated from employer’s other facilities by River Street, a public street. Employer maintains the parking areas and according to Rick Bates, employer’s plant manager, employees are expected to park on the areas employer maintains for that purpose. Claimant parked on the gravel lot when he arrived at the plant. He was struck by a pickup truck as he crossed River Street on his way from the parking lot to the factory.

Claimant was seriously injured in the accident. He was flown by helicopter to St. John’s Regional Medical Center in Joplin where he was diagnosed with a ruptured spleen, depressed skull fracture, brain stem injury, pulmonary aspiration, facial lacerations, bilateral pneumothorax, pneumonia, and paralytic ileus. Surgeries were performed to repair the skull fracture, a brain laceration, a dural tear, the brain stem injury, the facial lacerations, the pulmonary aspiration, and the fractured spleen. Claimant required a feeding tube. His respiratory problems required [160]*160use of a ventilator, insertion of chest tubes, and additional surgeries.

Claimant was unconscious. He was placed in intensive care at St. John’s. He was transferred from St. John’s to Missouri Rehabilitation Center in Mount Vernon, Missouri, on December 20, 1995. At the time of the transfer, claimant remained in a coma. He required oxygen and feeding tubes. He gradually improved cognitively and the oxygen and feeding tubes were removed. He underwent coma stimulation, speech therapy, occupational therapy, and physical therapy.

Claimant was evaluated neurologically by Dr. William H. Havins. The evaluation disclosed moderate cerebral dysfunction, severe delay in processing sensory and perceptual information, severe impairment performing manual dexterity tasks and tasks that required a combination of visual scanning, sequencing and paper and pencil skills, and moderate impairment in his capacity for new learning. He was evaluated as functioning at a “borderline” level.

Claimant was discharged May 10, 1996. At the time of his discharge, he had “significantly improved his cognitive function,” but had poor memory and organizational skills, continued to have trouble with “vision acuity” attributed to “some cranial nerve injury,” and was unable to extend his left knee to a neutral position due to heterotopic ossification.1 Claimant’s discharge summary stated that he needed supervision at all times and should not drive or operate machinery. Continued physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech therapy were recommended.

Following claimant’s discharge, he had knee surgery to remove the heterotopic ossification. He received radiation treatments to prevent its recurrence. He continued treatment at Missouri Rehabilitation Center for a right side tremor and to strengthen his left knee. Claimant also received occupational therapy and cognitive rehabilitation at St. John’s.

In 1997 claimant participated in transitional living, an outpatient service provided by Missouri Rehabilitation Center. The program focused on independent living skills. Goals for claimant were independent living with support system and determination of vocational objectives. His progress was impeded by limited “higher level cognitive functions,” “serious deficit in attention,” psychosocial issues, impulsivity and temper, and right arm tremor.

In late 1998, Dr. Charles Teo performed surgery to suppress claimant’s right side tremor. Dr. Teo diagnosed the cause of claimant’s tremor as “due to diffuse deep nuclear problem damage in the left hemisphere, including the left frontal lobe, left basilar ganglia and left cerebellum.” He classified claimant’s tremor as “extremely severe.” A brain stimulator was placed in claimant’s left thalamus. A device was placed in his chest wall to turn the stimulator on and off. The procedure resulted in less than 25% suppression of the tremor.

Employer’s and insurer’s first point on appeal asserts the commission erred in awarding claimant benefits because his injury was unrelated to his employment. They argue the commission erroneously found claimant’s injury was caused by an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. Employer and insurer [161]*161base their argument on the fact that claimant was injured in a public street neither owned, maintained, nor controlled by employer; that the injury occurred prior to claimant reporting for work. They argue that the injury arose from a hazard or risk to which claimant would have been equally exposed outside of and unrelated to his employment.

The commission addressed the issues presented in Point I in considerable detail in its Final Award Allowing Compensation. This court agrees with the commission’s conclusions and the rationale it followed in determining those issues. The language the commission used in determining those issues is, in large part, adopted and hereafter included in this opinion in addressing Point I. It appears without quotation reference or other acknowledgment.

In Cox v. Tyson Foods, Inc., 920 S.W.2d 534 (Mo. banc 1996), the court set forth the two-prong test for compensability in an extended premises case: (a) the injury-producing accident occurs on premises which are owned or controlled by the employer, or on premises which are not actually owned or controlled by the employer but which have been so appropriated by the employer or so situate, designed and used by the employer and his employees incidental to their work as to make them, for all practicable intents and purposes, a part and parcel of the employer’s premises and operation; and (b) if that portion of such premises is a part of the customary, expressly or impliedly approved, permitted, usual and acceptable route or means employed by workmen to get to and depart from their places of labor and is being used for such purpose at the time of the injury. Id. at 535-36.

In this instance, claimant parked in an authorized parking area and crossed a street that was the customary or usual route to reach employer’s place of business.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
69 S.W.3d 158, 2002 Mo. App. LEXIS 438, 2002 WL 342196, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gaston-v-steadley-co-moctapp-2002.