Lincoln University v. Kathy Narens

485 S.W.3d 811, 2016 WL 1436275, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 345
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedApril 12, 2016
DocketWD79003
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 485 S.W.3d 811 (Lincoln University v. Kathy Narens) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lincoln University v. Kathy Narens, 485 S.W.3d 811, 2016 WL 1436275, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 345 (Mo. Ct. App. 2016).

Opinion

Cynthia L. Martin, Judge

Lincoln University (“Lincoln”) appeals the decision of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (“Commission”) awarding workers’ compensation benefits to its employee, Kathy Narens (“Narens”), for an ankle injury she suffered after stepping off the steep edge of a sidewalk while leaving work. Lincoln argues that the Commission erred (1) by failing to conclude that the risk source of Narens’s injury was walking; (2) in awarding Narens benefits even though her injury occurred after work; and (3) because the award of benefits was not supported by competent substantial'evidence. Finding no error, we affirm'.

Factual and Procedural Background

Narens has been employed full time at Lincoln since 2009. Her normal working hours are from 7:45 a.m, to 4:45 p.m. At the time of her injury, Narens was. an administrative assistant with an office in the Dawson Annex building on Lincoln’s campus.

On April 11, 2012, Narens left Dawson Annex at the end of her-work day and started walking to her car that was parked in a parking lot on Lincoln’s campus. Narens walked down a ramp and turned right onto a sidewalk that led to the parking lot. Bumpers from cars parked on the left edge of the sidewalk made- the sidewalk narrow. Narens said students were walking toward her, so she stepped to the right. When she stepped to the right, her right foot landed- on a steep edge of the sidewalk and turned. As her right ankle turned, Narens overcompensated to her left, fell, and broke her. left ankle. Narens filed a claim .for workers’ compensation benefits on June 4,2012. ■

During a hearing before an Administrative Law Judge (“ALJ”), Narens and . Lincoln each submitted photographs of the sidewalk where Narens’s injury occurred. The photographs depict car bumpers overhanging the, left side of the sidewalk, a close up of a portion of 'the right side of the sidewalk that shows an edge higher than the ground adjacent to it, and a worn path along the right edge of the sidewalk. The photographs also show a blue trash can sitting on a concrete slab along the right side of the sidewalk. The worn path along the right side of the sidewalk runs before and after the blue trash can.

*814 Narens testified that she stepped on the right edge of the sidewalk just after passing the blue trash can. Narens also testified that she was walking with her supervisor in August 2013 on the same sidewalk when the supervisor stepped on the edge of the sidewalk and fell, injuring her knee.

The ALJ awarded Narens workers’ compensation benefits in a written decision dated March 25, 2015 (“ALJ Award”). The ALJ Award included the factual finding that:

[p]hotos of the location where ... Nar-ens fell indicate that there is a difference in the height of the ground between the sidewalk and the grassy area next to the sidewalk and that the sidewalk is higher than the grassy area adjacent to it. Moreover, the photos reflect a worn area in the grass adjacent to the sidewalk where ... Narens fell, which looks like a path that has been cleared by frequent use as a walkway alongside the sidewalk.

The ALJ Award found that Narens “sustained an accident arising out of and in the course of employment when she fell on a crowded sidewalk after stepping down into the grass and then falling onto her left ankle” and concluded that “[tjhere is nothing to suggest that the cause of the fall was anything other than the condition of the crowded sidewalk and the lower level adjacent ground which ... Narens was in effect trying to straddle when she fell injuring her left ankle.”

Lincoln appealed the ALJ Award to the Commission. The Commission affirmed the ALJ Award in a supplemental opinion dated September 1, 2015 (“Commission Award”). The supplemental opinion found that Narens’s injury “unquestionably [occurred] in the course of her employment ... because she was on a premises owned and controlled by [Lincoln].” The supplemental opinion also found that the “risk or hazard from which [Narens’] injuries came was traversing the crowded campus sidewalk with its steep drop-off.” The Commission thus concluded that Narens’s “daily exposure to this location and this condition of the sidewalk involved an increased risk of suffering an injury-producing fall ... to which [Narens] was not equally exposed in her normal nonemployment life.”

Lincoln timely appealed.

Standard of Review

“We .. review the findings and award of the Commission rather than those of the ALJ, to the extent that it departs from the ALJ’s ruling.” Small v. Red Simpson, Inc., WD 78289, 484 S.W.3d 341, 344, 2015 WL 7252997, at *3 (Mo.App. W.D. Nov. 17, 2015). “To the extent that the Commission affirms and adopts the ALJ’s findings and conclusions, we review the ALJ’s findings and conclusions.” Id. We may modify, reverse, remand for rehearing, or set aside the award of the Commission only if we determine that the Commission acted without or in excess of its powers, that the award was procured by fraud, that the facts found by the Commission do not support the award, or that there was not sufficient competent evidence to warrant making the award. Section 287.495.1. 1

“We review the whole record to determine whether there is sufficient competent and substantial evidence to support the award or if the award is contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence.” Gleason v. Treasurer of State of Missouri- *815 Custodian of Second Injury Fund, 455 S.W.3d 494, 497 (Mo.App.W.D. 2015) (internal citation omitted). “This Court defers to the Commission’s factual findings and recognizes that it is the Commission’s function to determine credibility of witnesses.” Riley v. City of Liberty, 404 S.W.3d 434, 439 (Mo.App.W.D. 2013) (quoting Ho rnbeck v. Spectra Painting, Inc., 370 S.W.3d 624, 629 (Mo. banc 2012)). “This Court may not substitute its judgment on the evidence, and when the evidence before an administrative body would warrant either of two opposed findings, the reviewing court is bound by the administrative determination, and it is irrelevant that there is supportive evidence for thé contrary finding.” Riley, 404 S.W.3d at 439. “The Commission’s determinations of law, however, are reviewed independently.” Gleason, 455 S.W.3d at 497.

Point One

In its first point, Lincoln argues that the Commission erred by finding that Narens’s injury arose out of and in the course of her employment because it did not conduct a proper risk source analysis. Lincoln claims that the proper risk source of Narens’s injury was walking, which renders her injury not compensable because Narens is equally exposed to the risk of walking outside of work.'

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485 S.W.3d 811, 2016 WL 1436275, 2016 Mo. App. LEXIS 345, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lincoln-university-v-kathy-narens-moctapp-2016.