Haynes v. Ozark Guidance Center, Inc.

384 S.W.3d 570, 2011 Ark. App. 396, 2011 Ark. App. LEXIS 436
CourtCourt of Appeals of Arkansas
DecidedJune 1, 2011
DocketNo. CA 11-41
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 384 S.W.3d 570 (Haynes v. Ozark Guidance Center, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haynes v. Ozark Guidance Center, Inc., 384 S.W.3d 570, 2011 Ark. App. 396, 2011 Ark. App. LEXIS 436 (Ark. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

LARRY D. VAUGHT, Chief Judge.

I,Sheryl Haynes appeals the decision of the Arkansas Workers’ Compensation Commission finding that she failed to prove, a compensable injury to her right knee. She contends that there is a lack of substantial evidence supporting the Commission’s decision that she was not performing employment services at the time she suffered the injury. We affirm.

The facts in this case are not in dispute. Haynes was employed with the Ozark Guidance Center, a mental-health-care facility. Her duties included receiving telephone calls and interviewing clients to determine what services Ozark Guidance could provide. On June 6, 2008, Haynes decided to take a break outside where she could smoke a cigarette. As she walked down a hall toward the back exit, she passed the office of co-employee Brenda IgHodges,1 who asked if she could talk to Haynes about a DWI class that Haynes was teaching for Ozark Guidance the following Saturday. Haynes said that she was on her way outside for a smoke break but invited Hodges to join her. Both Haynes and Hodges testified that it was their intent during Haynes’s smoke break to discuss preparations for the Saturday class. As Haynes opened the door and stepped down with her right leg, she heard a pop and felt immediate pain in her right knee. Although Hodges was following Haynes, Hodges did not see the incident. However, she did note that Haynes was in pain once they both arrived at the designated smoking location. The conversation about the DWI class never occurred because Haynes left almost immediately to report the injury to her supervisor and to seek medical attention.2

• Based on these facts, the administrative law judge found that Haynes’s knee injury occurred while she was performing employment services and awarded benefits. In reaching this conclusion, the ALJ specifically found that the injury occurred during work hours on Ozark Guidance’s premises and that the evidence undisput-edly showed that Haynes was expected to perform services that benefited the employer during that particular time.

laThe Commission reversed the ALJ decision and denied benefits to Haynes, finding that she was not performing employment services at the time of the injury. In its decision, the Commission noted that the work-related conversation never occurred and that there was no evidence that the work discussion was required to take place outside. The Commission further stated,

In the case before us, the claimant was injured on her way to take her smoke break. There was nothing required by her employer about where she had to take the break. She traveled to a further location than was necessary to take her break. The claimant was not engaged in a work-related conversation with Ms. Hodges at the time she was injured. That conversation had not begun nor did it ever take place before she was injured. There is nothing about the claimant’s job duties that required her to be on call during her break. Further, it is simply speculation and conjecture to conclude that an anticipated work-related conversation was going to take place and, therefore, the injury would be com-pensable.

Haynes timely appealed from the Commission’s decision. The sole issue on appeal is whether Haynes was performing employment services at the time of her injury.

In appeals involving claims for workers’ compensation, we view the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commission’s decision and affirm that decision if it is supported by substantial evidence. Texarkana Sch. Dist. v. Conner, 373 Ark. 372, 375, 284 S.W.3d 57, 60 (2008). Substantial evidence exists if reasonable minds could reach the Commission’s conclusion. Id. at 375, 284 S.W.3d at 60. The issue is not whether the appellate court might have reached a different result from that of the Commission, but whether reasonable minds could reach the result found by the Commission. Id., 284 S.W.3d at 60. If so, the appellate court must affirm the Commission’s decision. Id., 284 S.W.3d at 60.

[ 4Act 796 defines a compensable injury as “[a]n accidental injury ... arising out of and in the course of employment.” Ark.Code Ann. § 11 — 9—102(4)(A)(i) (Supp. 2009). A compensable injury does not include an “[i]njury which was inflicted upon the employee at a time when employment services were not being performed.” Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-102(4)(B)(iii) (Supp. 2009). Act 796 fails, however, to define the phrase “in the course of employment” or the term “employment services.” Tex-arkana Sch. Dist., 373 Ark. at 376, 284 S.W.3d at 61. Thus, it falls to the court to define these terms in a manner that neither broadens nor narrows the scope of Act 796. Id., 284 S.W.3d at 61.

Our supreme court has held that an employee is performing “employment services” when he or she “is doing something that is generally required by his or her employer.” Id., 284 S.W.3d at 61 (citations omitted). We use the same test to determine whether an employee was performing employment services as we do when determining whether an employee was acting within the course of employment. Id., 284 S.W.3d at 61. Specifically, it has been held that the test is whether the injury occurred “within the time and space boundaries of the employment, when the employee [was] carrying out the employer’s purpose or advancing the employer’s interest directly or indirectly.” Id. at 376-77, 284 S.W.3d at 61. The critical inquiry is whether the interests of the employer were being directly or indirectly advanced by the employee at the time of the injury. Id. at 377, 284 S.W.3d at 61. Moreover, the issue of whether an employee was performing employment services within the course of |semployment depends on the particular facts and circumstances of each case. Id., 284 S.W.3d at 61.

Haynes argues that she sustained her injury while performing employment services because the injury occurred on her employer’s premises, during her regular work hours, while she was taking a paid and sanctioned break during which she intended to discuss a work matter with another employee. For support she relies upon the holdings in White v. Georgia-Pacific Corp., 339 Ark. 474, 6 S.W.3d 98 (1999), and Ray v. University of Arkansas, 66 Ark.App. 177, 990 S.W.2d 558 (1999), where injuries during breaks were held to be compensable because the employer’s interests were advanced by the employee while taking his or her break.

It has been held that when an employee is doing something that is generally required by his or her employer, then the claimant is providing employment services. Ray, 66 Ark.App. at 181, 990 S.W.2d at 561. In Ray, our court held that a food-service employee, who slipped and fell while getting a snack during one of her paid breaks, was performing employment services at the time because she was required to come off her break in order to assist students. 66 Ark.App. at 182, 990 S.W.2d at 562. Likewise, in White, our supreme court held that injuries sustained by an employee while on a smoke break were compensable because the employee was required to monitor his work area during the break. 389 Ark. at 480, 6 S.W.3d at 102.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
384 S.W.3d 570, 2011 Ark. App. 396, 2011 Ark. App. LEXIS 436, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haynes-v-ozark-guidance-center-inc-arkctapp-2011.