Jordan v. Central Management Co.

745 So. 2d 116, 1999 WL 826047
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 13, 1999
Docket99-748
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 745 So. 2d 116 (Jordan v. Central Management Co.) 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
Jordan v. Central Management Co., 745 So. 2d 116, 1999 WL 826047 (La. Ct. App. 1999).

Opinion

745 So.2d 116 (1999)

Ellen Jo JORDAN, Plaintiff— Appellant,
v.
CENTRAL MANAGEMENT COMPANY, d/b/a Autumn Leaves Nursing Home, Defendant—Appellee.

No. 99-748.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

October 13, 1999.
Writ Denied January 14, 2000.

*117 Joseph Texada Dalrymple, Alexandria, for Ellen J. Jordan.

Samuel Newman Poole, Jr., for Central Mgmt. Co., d/b/a Autumn Leaves Nursing Home.

Before THIBODEAUX, PETERS, and GREMILLION, Judges.

PETERS, J.

The issue in this appeal is whether the workers' compensation judge erred in finding that Ellen Jo Jordan was not an employee of Central Management Company, d/b/a Autumn Leaves Nursing Home, when she injured her back on March 25, 1998. Ms. Jordan has appealed that decision, and, for the following reasons, we affirm the judgment in all respects.

DISCUSSION OF THE RECORD

Sometime in August or September of 1997, Ellen Jo Jordan began working as a licensed practical nurse (LPN) for Central Management Company, d/b/a Autumn Leaves Nursing Home (Autumn Leaves), at its Winnfield, Louisiana location. Her LPN duties included administering medications, changing dressings, feeding the nursing home residents, maintaining charts, and assisting the aides in their duties. Ms. Jordan normally worked a five-day-per-week, forty-hour shift and occasionally worked some overtime hours.

As a service to its residents, Autumn Leaves had an on-premises beauty and barber salon. When Ms. Jordan first began her LPN duties for Autumn Leaves, the salon was staffed by a beautician. At some point after Ms. Jordan's employment, the beautician discontinued her services with Autumn Leaves, and Ms. Jordan, who is also a licensed beautician, became aware of her departure. Ms. Jordan approached the nursing home's activity director and informed her that she would be willing to come in on one of her days off and provide beautician services *118 until the nursing home could find someone else.

Autumn Leaves accepted her offer, conditioned upon her performing beautician services at times other than when she was working in her capacity as an LPN. Ms. Jordan testified that she worked in the nursing home salon as a beautician on March 9, 17, and 25, 1998. In doing so, Ms. Jordan set her own prices and provided her own supplies. Autumn Leaves provided her with a list of residents who needed her services and paid her by check from its patient fund account or allowed her to obtain payment directly from the residents or family members of the residents.

Ms. Jordan testified that on March 25, 1998, while providing the beautician services, her back "popped" when she bent down to pick up towels and bedspreads that were on the floor to absorb water. She was diagnosed as having a herniated disc at L4-5, arthritis, and degenerative changes at L5-S1. She attempted to work on several occasions following the alleged incident but testified that she was unable to do the work.

On April 21, 1998, Ms. Jordan filed the instant claim seeking temporary total disability benefits, medical expenses, penalties, and attorney fees. After a hearing, the workers' compensation judge concluded that no employer-employee relationship existed between Autumn Leaves and Ms. Jordan regarding her beautician activities and that the beautician services did not create a statutory employment status.

OPINION

Employee Status as Being Within Course of LPN Employment

In her first assignment of error, Ms. Jordan contends that the workers' compensation judge erred in failing to find that, at the time of her injury, she was an LPN employee of Autumn Leaves rendering on-premises services beneficial to Autumn Leaves (even though on her off-duty time) and, as such, was within the course of her LPN employment. She bases this argument on the assertion that the provision of beautician services was an essential and integral part of Autumn Leaves' business and that she benefited her employer by volunteering to perform these services. In support of this argument, Ms. Jordan cites Maurice v. Orleans Parish School Board, 295 So.2d 184 (La.App. 4 Cir.1974); Lewis v. Bellow, 212 So.2d 540 (La.App. 3 Cir.1968); and Quinney v. Maryland Casualty Co., 347 So.2d 921 (La.App. 3 Cir. 1977), in which the claimants were allowed to recover workers' compensation benefits where they volunteered services outside of their regular job duties.

La.R.S. 23:1031(A) provides that workers' compensation benefits are due if an employee "receives personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment." (Emphasis added). An accident is considered to have occurred in the course of employment when the employee sustains an injury while actively engaged in the performance of his duties during working hours, either on the employer's premises or at other places where employment activities take the employee. Mundy v. Department of Health & Human Resources, 593 So.2d 346 (La.1992). The principal criteria used in determining course of employment are time, place, and employment activity. Id. In 1 H. Alston Johnson, III, Workers' Compensation Law and Practice § 166, in 13 Louisiana Civil Law Treatise (3rd ed.1994), the author states:

Where the employer directs his employee to perform some service outside the regular line of his duties, the latter is acting within the scope of his employment while he is obeying such orders. Similarly, in most enterprises the work is so loosely organized that the employer accepts, and even encourages, interchange of assistance between employees, particularly in emergencies. Since the purpose of volunteering is to further the employer's business, the situation of the *119 volunteer is clearly distinguishable from that of the employee who leaves his post of duty either for his personal pleasure or for the purpose of helping an outsider.

(Footnote omitted.)

In Maurice, 295 So.2d 184, the claimant was employed by the defendant-school board as a substitute teacher. Although no after-school duties were required of her, she offered to help with a style show that was planned by a girls' club sanctioned and sponsored by one of the schools for which she was a substitute teacher. The claimant received no compensation for working after school hours. While working with the style show, she allegedly sustained injuries during a rehearsal after school hours when she was struck by a falling door in the school's auditorium. The fourth circuit found that the claimant was working within the trade, business, or occupation of the school board. This conclusion was based on the testimony of the school's principal to the effect that he allowed the claimant to participate in the style show only because her efforts would have been in aid of the duties of a regular staff member of his school in a school-sponsored activity. The fourth circuit noted that a regular, full-time teacher injured while performing extra work not connected with his usual duties, such as coaching a school athletic team, would be entitled to compensation, and it saw no difference between a regular, full-time teacher and a substitute teacher. Thus, the fourth circuit affirmed the award of workers' compensation benefits to the claimant.

In Lewis,

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745 So. 2d 116, 1999 WL 826047, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jordan-v-central-management-co-lactapp-1999.