Markle v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Bucknell University)

785 A.2d 151, 2001 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 770
CourtCommonwealth Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedOctober 19, 2001
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 785 A.2d 151 (Markle v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Bucknell University)) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Markle v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Bucknell University), 785 A.2d 151, 2001 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 770 (Pa. Ct. App. 2001).

Opinions

DOYLE, President Judge.

Kathy Markle (Claimant) petitions for review of an order of the Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board (Board), which affirmed the decision of a Workers’ Compensation Judge (WCJ) denying Claimant’s claim petition for benefits under the Workers’ Compensation Act (Act).1 We affirm.

On January 31, 1994, Claimant, a reserve technical assistant at the library of Bucknell University (Bucknell), left work for the day and walked to her vehicle, a 1987 Camaro that was parked in the rear library lot. It had recently snowed and there were piles of snow in the parking lot. Although the parking lot had been plowed, the surface was still snow-covered, even though the fines demarcating the parking spaces were partially visible. A truck parked next to Claimant’s car was so close that it prevented her from entering her car on the driver’s side. Claimant then entered her car from the passenger side and injured her back when she crossed over the center console in the front seat to get to the driver’s seat.

Claimant filed a claim petition, which the WCJ denied, concluding that Claimant failed to prove that she suffered a work-related injury that occurred in the course of her employment and, specifically, that Claimant’s act of moving from the passenger seat to the driver’s seat of her own car did not cause an injury that arose out of the course of her employment. He also concluded that Claimant was not engaged in the furtherance of the business or affairs of Bucknell University at the time of her injury. In addition, he made the following relevant conclusion of law:

The WCJ concludes that the pickup truck which had no proven relationship to Bucknell University was parked too closely to Claimant’s Camaro thus causing her to enter through the passenger side of the vehicle. The WCJ concludes that it was not the condition of the employer’s premises or the operation of the [153]*153employer’s business that caused Claimant’s condition. The WCJ concludes that the injury or incident was Claimant’s act of climbing over the console of her car and the WCJ concludes that this is not a condition of employer’s premises.

(WCJ’s decision, dated August 12, 1998, Conclusion of Law No. 5, at 5).

Claimant appealed to the Board, which affirmed the order of the WCJ. The Board determined that the truck parked next to Claimant’s car did not bear a parking sticker issued by Bucknell and was not under the control of Bucknell. It also determined that Claimant’s “act of climbing over the console” of her car “was not a condition of [Bucknell’s] premises.” (Board Op., dated December 10, 1999, at 5). Claimant brings the instant appeal.2

The essential issue presented is whether Claimant was acting within the course of her employment at the time of her injury, and whether an employee is within the course of his or her employment is a question of law to be determined on the basis of the findings of fact. Newhouse v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Harris Cleaning Service, Inc.), 109 Pa. Cmwlth.96, 580 A.2d 545 (1987), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 517 Pa. 627, 588 A.2d 879 (1988).

The term “injury” is defined in Section 301(c)(1) of the Act, which provides in pertinent part as follows:

The term “injury arising in the course of his employment,” as used in this article, ... shall include all ... injuries sustained while the employe is actually engaged in the furtherance of the business or affairs of the employer, whether upon the employer’s premises or elsewhere, and shall include all injuries caused by the condition of the premises ... sustained by the employe, who, though not so engaged, is injured upon the premises occupied by or under the control of the employer, ... the employe’s presence thereon being required by the nature of his employment.

77 P.S. § 411(1). (Emphasis added.)

Case law has now well established that an employee not engaged in the furtherance of the business or affairs of the employer must satisfy three conditions under the Act in order for her injury to be “in the course of employment.” Dana Corp. v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (Gearhart), 120 Pa.Cmwlth.277, 548 A.2d 669 (1988), petition for allowance of appeal denied, 522 Pa. 606, 562 A.2d 828 (1989). The Act dictates that: (1) the injury must have occurred bn the employer’s premises; (2) the employee’s presence thereon was required by the nature of his employment; and (3) the injury was caused by the condition of the premises or by the operation of the employer’s business thereon. Id.

There is no dispute that the first two requirements of the Act were met. Claimant, however, disagrees with the Board that she failed to satisfy her burden of proving the third requirement of the Act, i.e., that the injury was caused by a condition of Bucknell’s premises. Specifically, she argues that Employer created two conditions of the premises that contributed to her injury. First, Claimant argues that the accumulation of snow in the parking lot, creating cramped parking conditions, was a “condition of the premises” which [154]*154caused her injury. In addition, Claimant argues that Employer’s security officers patrolling the premises should have noticed that the truck parked next to her car had no parking sticker authorizing it to be parked in the library lot and should have prevented the truck from parking there, or should have removed it from the lot. By failing to do so, Claimant contends, Buck-nell allowed the truck to become a condition of the premises.

We have previously upheld awards of compensation in cases where a claimant’s exertion, caused by the accumulation of snow on an employer’s premises, resulted in an injury. In Port Authority of Allegheny County v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (D’Agostino), 66 Pa.Cmwlth.393, 444 A.2d 837 (1982), we upheld an award of death benefits to the widow of an employee who suffered a heart attack while shoveling snow away from his car in the employer’s parking lot. We held in that case that the snow was a condition of the premises, which necessitated the employee’s exertion to clear it and led to the employee’s heart attack. This Court also upheld an award of compensation in Carl v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board (G.H. Delp Co.), 79 Pa.Cmwlth.332, 469 A.2d 347 (1984), where an employee, who was helping to push another employee’s car out of the snow, suffered an aneurysm as a result of the exertion. In that case, we held that the condition of the premises, the heavy layer of snow, caused the need for claimant’s exertion, which in turn caused the injury.

However, in the case now before us, we conclude that the facts are more analogous to those in Dana Corp., where we denied benefits. The claimant in Dana Corp., after his third shift, went to the employer’s parking lot to assist a co-worker who was having car trouble.

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Markle v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board (Bucknell University)
785 A.2d 151 (Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania, 2001)

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Bluebook (online)
785 A.2d 151, 2001 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 770, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/markle-v-workers-compensation-appeal-board-bucknell-university-pacommwct-2001.