Hanik v. Christopher & Banks, Inc.

434 S.W.3d 20, 2014 WL 2778732, 2014 Ky. LEXIS 232
CourtKentucky Supreme Court
DecidedJune 19, 2014
DocketNo. 2012-SC-000791-WC
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 434 S.W.3d 20 (Hanik v. Christopher & Banks, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Kentucky Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hanik v. Christopher & Banks, Inc., 434 S.W.3d 20, 2014 WL 2778732, 2014 Ky. LEXIS 232 (Ky. 2014).

Opinions

Opinion of the Court by Justice KELLER.

Kimberly Hanik (Hanik) appeals from an opinion by the Court of Appeals which reversed the Workers’ Compensation Board (the Board) and reinstated the opinion of the Administrative Law Judge (the ALJ). On appeal, Hanik argues that the Court of Appeals erred when it concluded that the Board engaged in impermissible fact finding. Christopher & Banks, Inc., Hanik’s employer, argues to the contrary. Having reviewed the record and the arguments of the parties,1 we affirm.

I. FACTS.

Kimberly Hanik (Hanik) was an assistant manager at Christopher & Banks, a retail clothing store located in The Summit shopping center in Louisville, Kentucky. The Summit consists of a number of buildings in a “U-shape” with a large parking lot in the middle of the U (the front lot). Christopher & Banks is located in a building on one turn of the U. It has a front door that opens onto the front lot and a back door that opens onto a smaller lot that is used for parking and deliveries (the back lot).

On January 9, 2011, Hanik parked in the back lot near the back door to Christopher & Banks. When she left work, Hanik walked to her car, put her purse on the passenger seat, and, while walking around the back of her car to the driver’s side, slipped and fell on “black ice.” Hanik, who injured her right shoulder, immediately reported the incident to her manager, Patricia Spence (Spence). The next day Hanik completed an Associate Injury Statement Form and Spence completed a Supervisory Injury Investigation Form and a First Report of Injury. Both Hanik and Spence indicated on their respective forms that the injury occurred in the employee parking lot.

A month after the incident, Hanik filed an Application for Resolution of Injury Claim alleging that she had suffered a work-related right shoulder injury. Christopher & Banks denied the claim arguing that Hanik’s injury was not compensable because it did not occur on Christopher & Banks’s operating premises. Christopher & Banks then moved to bifurcate the claim, a motion the ALJ granted, so that he could determine whether Hanik’s injury was compensable before addressing issues related to extent and duration of disability.

At the outset, we note that the witnesses who were asked, testified to the following: (1) parking spaces in the front lot that are marked with yellow lines are supposed to be for parking for employees of businesses in The Summit; (2) in order to preserve [22]*22parking for customers, The Summit’s management sends out a memorandum to its businesses asking that employees park in the lots behind their businesses and/or in an adjacent parking lot during the week before Christmas; (8) although customers do not usually park in the back lot, there is nothing prohibiting them from doing so; (4) employees from other businesses, primarily those who work in the adjacent nail salon, park in the back lot; and (5) with the exception of Hanik, no one knows of any regular enforcement by The Summit or Christopher & Banks of whatever parking regulations might exist.

Hanik testified that, when she was hired, the then store manager and a manager with The Summit told her to park in the back lot; therefore, she always parks there. Hanik has heard that people have gotten ticketed for parking in the wrong spot. However, Hanik admitted that other Christopher & Banks employees park in the front lot and that Spence always parks there. She also admitted that she did not have any written policy regarding employee parking, and that she did not know if there were any signs designating the back lot as reserved for employee parking.

Mary Jo Frye (Frye) testified that, when she was hired, the then manager told her that “employees should park in the back of the store.” However, Frye admitted that she does not always park in the back lot. When she has to work at night, she parks in the front lot because she does not like walking to the back lot at night. Frye also testified that other Christopher & Banks employees park in the back lot but that Spence always parks in the front lot.

Spence testified that, except for during Christmas week, she does not believe anyone told her where to park or that she ever told anyone else where to park. Some Christopher & Banks employees do park in the back lot; however, other Christopher & Banks employees park in the front lot, and Spence always parks there. Spence noted that the back lot, where Hanik was parked, is not designated as an employee parking lot; does not have any marked parking spaces; and is a loading zone. Finally, Spence testified that Christopher & Banks does not have any control over or any responsibility for maintaining any of the parking lots.

Jerry Poschinger (Poschinger) has worked as a sales clerk at Christopher & Banks for five years. She testified that she was not told where to park and that she sometimes parks in the front lot and sometimes parks in the back lot, depending on the weather.

Judy Noland (Noland) has been an assistant manager at Christopher & Bank for seven years. She testified that, except for during Christmas week, no one ever told her where to park.

Carolyn Sceiner2 has worked as a sales associate for Christopher & Banks for two years and four months. She parks in the back lot because she does not want to get her car doors “dinged,” not because she was told to do so. No one from Christopher & Banks told her where to park and she knows that employees park in both the front and back lots.

After reviewing and summarizing the preceding evidence, the ALJ found that Christopher & Banks had no control over the parking lot where Hanik fell. Furthermore, he concluded that no one from Christopher & Banks told Hanik to park in the back lot and that any directions re[23]*23garding parking came from The Summit, not Christopher & Banks. Based on these findings, and citing to K-Marb Discount Stores v. Schroeder, 623 S.W.2d 900 (Ky.1981), Ratliff v. Epling, 401 S.W.2d 43 (Ky.1966), and Pierson v. Lexington Public Library, 987 S.W.2d 316 (Ky.1999), the ALJ determined that Hanik’s injury did not occur within Christopher & Banks’s operating premises and was, therefore, not compensable.

Hanik appealed to the Board, and a divided Board reversed. In doing so, the majority of the Board concluded that, even though Christopher & Banks had no control over the parking lot, it did control where its employees parked. The Board acknowledged that Christopher & Banks may not have specifically told its employees where to park but concluded that Christopher & Banks “tacitly conveyed to the employees where they were to park.” The Board then found that “the evidence compelled] a finding [Christopher & Banks] directed its employees to park in either one of two spaces, the area in the front parking lot marked with yellow lines or in the back parking lot.” Based on these findings, the Board concluded that Hanik was “parked in the area designated by [Christopher & Banks],” and her injury was therefore within Christopher & Banks’s operating premises.

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Bluebook (online)
434 S.W.3d 20, 2014 WL 2778732, 2014 Ky. LEXIS 232, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hanik-v-christopher-banks-inc-ky-2014.