Kasl v. Bristol Care, Inc.

984 S.W.2d 852, 1999 WL 62760
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedFebruary 9, 1999
Docket80947
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 984 S.W.2d 852 (Kasl v. Bristol Care, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kasl v. Bristol Care, Inc., 984 S.W.2d 852, 1999 WL 62760 (Mo. 1999).

Opinions

BENTON, Chief Justice.

Marcia L. Kasl managed and resided at a residential care facility in Lincoln. On November 15, 1995, at about 9:30 p.m., she arose from her chair to dispense medicine to a resident. Unaware her left foot had “fallen asleep,” she fell and broke her ankle.

[853]*853The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission affirmed a temporary award of benefits. The employer (Bristol Care, Inc.) and the insurer (Travelers Property Casualty Company) appeal, asserting the injury did not arise out of her employment. This Court granted transfer. Mo. Const art. V, sec. 10. Affirmed.

I.

In 1993, the General Assembly amended the workers’ compensation law. 1993 Mo. Laws 763-816. The legislature did not change the fundamental principle of workers’ compensation: Employers are liable, irrespective of negligence, to furnish workers’ compensation to employees for personal injuries from accidents “arising out of and in the course of’ employment. Compare sec. 287.120.1 RSMo 1986, with sec. 287.120.1 RSMo 199L1

The 1993 amendment does, however, change the definition of “accident”:

2. The word “accident” as used in this chapter, shall, unless a different meaning is clearly indicated by the context, be construed to mean an unexpected or unforeseen identifiable event or series of events happening suddenly and violently, with or without human fault, and producing at the time objective symptoms of an injury. An injury is compensable if it is clearly work related. An injury is clearly work related if work was a substantial factor in the cause of the resulting medical condition or disability. An injury is not compensable merely because work was a triggering or precipitating factor.

Sec. 287.020 codifying 1993 Mo. Laws 766 (emphasis denotes language new in 1993).

Adopting the test in Wolfgeher v. Wagner Cartage Service, Inc., the 1993 amendment requires that, to be compensable, accidents must be “clearly work related.” 646 S.W.2d 781, 785[4] (Mo. banc 1983). As this Court has explained, this means accidents must be “unique” to the work Abel v. Mike Russell’s Standard Service, 924 S.W.2d 602, 504 (Mo. banc 1996).2

The 1993 amendment further requires that work must be a “substantial” factor, not merely a “triggering or precipitating” factor in causing the resulting medical condition or disability. The 1993 amendment thus overrules the holding of Wynn v. Navajo Freight Lines, Inc.:

“Even though [employee] was in poor health, had a preexisting heart condition, did not take good care of himself, and might have succumbed to a fatal heart attack while off work, possibly caused by different sorts of stress, the right to compensation should exist if the actual triggering causes are found, on the basis of substantial evidence, to meet the ‘job related’ or ‘work related’ test of Wolfgeher.”

654 S.W.2d 87, 89-90 (Mo. banc 1983) (emphasis supplied). The 1993 amendment also rejects statements in earlier cases, such as Bone v. Daniel Hamm Drayage Company: “The heavy work [employee] did while he had his heart and lung conditions was a precipitating cause of his death.” 449 S.W.2d 169, 172 (Mo.1970) (emphasis supplied); see also Wilhite v. Hurd 411 S.W.2d 72, 79 (Mo.1967); Hall v. Spot Martin, Inc., 304 S.W.2d 844, 852 (Mo.1957). Similar statements in the cases listed in the appendix should not be followed, for claims governed by the 1993 amendment.

Awards for injuries “triggered” or “precipitated” by work are nonetheless proper if the employee shows that the work is a “substantial factor” in the cause of the injury. In Alexander v. D.L. Sitton Motor Lines, this Court approved compensation for a fall off a four-and-one-half foot platform, precipitated by a dizzy spell. 851 S.W.2d 525, 528 [854]*854(Mo. banc 1993). This Court stated: “But even though the heart attack, itself, is not compensable, injuries sustained in a fall as a result of the heart attack would be compen-sable, assuming there is a causal connection between the fall” and the work. Id. at 529.

II.

The 1993 amendment also changes the definition of “injury”:

3. (1) In this chapter the term “injury” is hereby defined to be an injury which has arisen out of and in the course of employment. The injury must be incidental to and not independent of the relation of employer and employee. Ordinary, gradual deterioration or progressive degeneration of the body caused by aging shall not be compensable, except where the deterioration or degeneration follows as an incident of employment.
(2)An injury shall be deemed to arise out of and in the course of the employment only if:
(a) It is reasonably apparent, upon consideration of all the circumstances, that the employment is a substantial factor in causing the injury; and
(b) It can be seen to have followed as a natural incident of the work; and
(c) It can be fairly traced to the employment as a proximate cause; and
(d) It does not come from a hazard or risk unrelated to the employment to which workers would have been equally exposed outside of and unrelated to the employment in normal nonemployment life.

Sec. 287.020 codifying 1993 Mo. Laws 766 (entire quotation new in 1993).

Subsection (2)(a) repeats the “substantial factor” requirement of section 287.020.2, discussed in Part I of this opinion. The parties in this case further dispute the meaning of subsection (2)(d), which states that to be compensable, the injury cannot come from a hazard or risk “unrelated to” employment. Sec. 287.020.3(2)(d) codifying 1993 Mo. Laws 766. Among such hazards or risks are “idiopathic” conditions, those “peculiar to the individual: innate.” Alexander, 851 S.W.2d at 527 n. 3. Common conditions exacerbated by employment requirements are not idiopathic. Kloppenburg v. Queen Size Shoes, Inc., 704 S.W.2d 234, 236 (Mo. banc 1986). See also Abel, 924 S.W.2d at 504[4]; Alexander, 851 S.W.2d at 528; Morgan v. Duncan, 361 Mo. 683, 236 S.W.2d 281, 283[4] (Mo.1951). Yet, injuries on the job, resulting from an idiopathic condition peculiar to the employee, are not covered. Abel, 924 S.W.2d at 504.

III.

Here, after waiting for the appointéd time, Kasl arose from her chair to dispense medicine to a resident, a requirement of her job.

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

Related

Farmer v. Treasurer of Mo.
567 S.W.3d 228 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2018)
State ex rel. Deckard v. Schmitt
532 S.W.3d 170 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2017)
Wright v. Treasurer of Missouri as Custodian of Second Injury Fund
484 S.W.3d 56 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2015)
Milton Young v. Boone Electric Cooperative
462 S.W.3d 783 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2015)
Landon Sterling v. Mid America Car, Inc.
456 S.W.3d 473 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2014)
John Templemire v. W&M Welding, Inc.
Supreme Court of Missouri, 2014
Johme v. St. John's Mercy Healthcare
366 S.W.3d 504 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 2012)
Pace v. City of St. Joseph
367 S.W.3d 137 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2012)
State Ex Rel. KCP & L Greater Missouri Operations Co. v. Cook
353 S.W.3d 14 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2011)
Sell v. Ozarks Medical Center
333 S.W.3d 498 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2011)
Angus v. Second Injury Fund
328 S.W.3d 294 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2010)
Hager v. Syberg's Westport
304 S.W.3d 771 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2010)
Stricker v. Children's Mercy Hospital
304 S.W.3d 189 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2010)
Miller v. Missouri Highway & Transportation Commission
287 S.W.3d 671 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 2009)
Bock v. City of Columbia
274 S.W.3d 555 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2008)
Bivins v. St. John's Regional Health Center
272 S.W.3d 446 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2008)
Van Winkle v. LEWELLENS PROFESS. CLEANING, INC.
258 S.W.3d 889 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2008)
Portwood v. Treasurer of Missouri-Custodian of the Second Injury Fund
219 S.W.3d 289 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2007)
Lawson v. Ford Motor Co.
217 S.W.3d 345 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 2007)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
984 S.W.2d 852, 1999 WL 62760, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kasl-v-bristol-care-inc-mo-1999.