Johnson v. Publix Supermarkets

568 S.E.2d 827, 256 Ga. App. 540, 2002 Fulton County D. Rep. 2238, 2002 Ga. App. LEXIS 963
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJuly 16, 2002
DocketA02A0428
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 568 S.E.2d 827 (Johnson v. Publix Supermarkets) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Johnson v. Publix Supermarkets, 568 S.E.2d 827, 256 Ga. App. 540, 2002 Fulton County D. Rep. 2238, 2002 Ga. App. LEXIS 963 (Ga. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

Barnes, Judge.

On November 11, 1999, while working as a cashier at the Houston County Publix Supermarket, Martha Johnson fell as she was hurrying down a store aisle. Johnson fractured her leg in the fall and subsequently filed a claim for workers’ compensation benefits.

The administrative law judge ruled that Johnson’s injuries arose out of her employment and awarded her income and disability benefits. The ALJ’s award was affirmed by the Appellate Division of the State Board of Workers’ Compensation. On appeal, however, the Superior Court of Houston County reversed the Board’s decision. This court granted Johnson’s application for discretionary review, and we reverse.

The superior court and this court must affirm the decision of the Board if any evidence supports it.

On appeal of an award or denial of workers’ compensation benefits, the superior court may not substitute its findings for the appellate division’s findings of fact, and when sitting as an appellate body, it is bound by the “any evidence” standard of review and is not authorized to substitute its judgment as to weight of the evidence or the credibility of the witnesses. [Cit.]

Owens-Brockway Packaging v. Hathorn, 227 Ga. App. 110, 111 (488 SE2d 495) (1997). Further, in reviewing a workers’ compensation award, we must construe the evidence in the light most favorable to the prevailing party. Hallisey v. Fort Howard Paper Co., 268 Ga. 57, 59 (1) (484 SE2d 653) (1997).

The ALJ and Board found that Johnson’s injury was compensable. The parties stipulated the facts, including the fact that Johnson was in the scope and course of her employment when she fell, but Publix argued that her fall did not “arise out of” her employment. The stipulated facts show that the grocery store was closing in 30 minutes, and Johnson locked but did not close out her cash register so she would be available to check out customers if needed. She then reshelved items and, with her supervisor’s permission, picked up some personal items. She was walking quickly and looking ahead for items left on the floor, as all Publix employees were encouraged to do, [541]*541when she fell and broke her leg. The ALJ and Board concluded that the fall arose out of her employment and was therefore compensable.

In reversing the Board’s decision that Johnson’s injury was compensable, the superior court found two cases dispositive: Borden Foods Co. v. Dorsey, 112 Ga. App. 838 (146 SE2d 532) (1965), and Prudential Bank v. Moore, 219 Ga. App. 847 (467 SE2d 7) (1996). It further held:

As [with] the claimant in Borden Foods, Appellee was walking at the time of the fall; she did not fall over anything and she only hit the floor when she fell. “[T]he injury she sustained as a result [of the fall] was no greater than it would have been had she suffered a similar fall onto a hard surface at any place other than on the employer’s premises.” Borden Foods, supra at p. 840. The floor “is a structural hazard that the claimant is equally exposed to apart from her employment. An accident does not arise out of employment when it ‘cannot be fairly traced to the employment as a contributing proximate cause and which comes from a hazard to which the workman would have been equally exposed apart from the employment. The causative danger must be peculiar to the work. . . .’” Prudential Bank, supra at p. 848.

The superior court then concluded that “there was simply no evidence for the Board to conclude that Appellee’s injuries were the result of anything other than an idiopathic fall which, by definition, did not arise out of Appellee’s employment.”

“Physical contact with some object is not necessary in order for the employee to sustain an accident within the meaning of the Work[ers’] Compensation Law.” Orkin Exterminating Co. v. Wright, 92 Ga. App. 224, 225 (88 SE2d 205) (1955).

Borden Foods held that a compensable injury must result from some peculiar danger to which the work exposed the employee, citing Hartford Accident &c. Co. v. Cox, 61 Ga. App. 420 (6 SE2d 189) (1939). This court subsequently held, however, that, “to be compensable, injuries do not have to arise from something peculiar to the employment,” and overruled Hartford “and any other decisions of this court which hold that the danger must be peculiar to the work.” (Punctuation omitted.) Nat. Fire Ins. Co. v. Edwards, 152 Ga. App. 566 (263 SE2d 455) (1979). Instead, “fw]here the duties of an employee entail his presence (at a place and a time), the claim for an injury there occurring is not to be barred because it results from a risk common to all others . . . ,” (punctuation omitted) id. at 567, a concept that came to be known as the “positional risk doctrine.” While subsequent cases have cited Borden Foods for the proposition that there must be a causal connection between the employment and [542]*542the injury (such as the special concurrence in Labelle v. Lister, 192 Ga. App. 464 (385 SE2d 118) (1989)), its requirement of a “peculiar danger” is no longer good law and was overruled by Nat. Fire Ins. Co. v. Edwards, supra, 152 Ga. App. 566.

In fact, Judge Ruffin’s recent opinion in DeKalb Collision Center v. Foster, 254 Ga. App. 477, 480 (562 SE2d 740) (2002), notes that the “positional risk doctrine” set out by the whole court in Nat. Fire Ins. Co. v. Edwards has been inconsistently applied, citing the decision in Prudential Bank v. Moore, supra, among others.

Under the “positional risk doctrine,” Johnson’s claim is compensable. If she had not been working, she would not have been hurrying through the aisles so she could be available to check out more customers if needed. She would not have been on the lookout for items left on the floor, as her employer expected. This evidence supports the ALJ’s conclusion that the fall arose out of Johnson’s employment.

At any rate, the “positional risk doctrine” has not been used before to present additional barriers to an employee who falls at work. See, e.g., Rockwell v. Lockheed Martin Corp., 248 Ga. App. 73 (545 SE2d 121) (2001) (Act applies to fall in parking lot). Rather, the doctrine has been used to address situations outside the work norm. See, e.g., Nat. Fire, supra (tornado caused a wall to fall on an employee); DeKalb Collision Center, supra (employee died in a fight); Booth v. Essex Ins. Co., 231 Ga. App. 542 (498 SE2d 528) (1997) (employee murdered by a resident in an alcohol recovery residence); Olde South Custom Landscaping v. Mathis, 229 Ga. App. 316 (494 SE2d 14) (1997) (employee injured when stopped to assist stranded motorists); Walsh Constr. Co. v. Hamilton, 185 Ga. App. 105 (363 SE2d 301) (1987) (employee injured in fight before work began).

Additionally, the decision in Prudential Bank, which relies heavily on Borden Foods, incorrectly states that U. S. Casualty v. Richardson, 75 Ga. App. 496 (43 SE2d 793) (1947), stands for the proposition that an idiopathic fall is compensable only when the claimant strikes a work-related object. While the claimant there did strike a work-related object, the court noted with approval that “a majority of the courts, American and English, hold that, if the injury was due to the fall, the employer is liable, even though the fall was caused by a preexisting idiopathic condition.” (Punctuation omitted.) Id. at 500.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Cartersville City Schools v. Celia Johnson
812 S.E.2d 605 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2018)
Collie Concessions, Inc. v. Bruce
612 S.E.2d 900 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2005)
Chaparral Boats, Inc. v. Heath
606 S.E.2d 567 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2004)
ATC Healthcare Service, Inc. v. Adams
589 S.E.2d 346 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2003)
Milledge v. Oaks
784 N.E.2d 926 (Indiana Supreme Court, 2003)
Johnson v. Publix Supermarkets
568 S.E.2d 827 (Court of Appeals of Georgia, 2002)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
568 S.E.2d 827, 256 Ga. App. 540, 2002 Fulton County D. Rep. 2238, 2002 Ga. App. LEXIS 963, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/johnson-v-publix-supermarkets-gactapp-2002.