Matute v. PALMETTO HEALTH BAPTIST

705 S.E.2d 472, 391 S.C. 291, 2011 S.C. App. LEXIS 4
CourtCourt of Appeals of South Carolina
DecidedJanuary 19, 2011
Docket4777
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 705 S.E.2d 472 (Matute v. PALMETTO HEALTH BAPTIST) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of South Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Matute v. PALMETTO HEALTH BAPTIST, 705 S.E.2d 472, 391 S.C. 291, 2011 S.C. App. LEXIS 4 (S.C. Ct. App. 2011).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, J.

Alba Matute (Matute) appeals the appellate panel of the Workers’ Compensation Commission’s (appellate panel) decision to deny her benefits after she fell on the sidewalk outside *293 Palmetto Health Baptist Hospital (Palmetto Baptist) and broke her wrist. Matute claims the appellate panel erred in reversing the single commissioner’s decision to award her temporary total disability benefits and causally related medical treatment on two grounds: (1) Palmetto Baptist failed to timely appeal the single commissioner’s order; and (2) Matute established she suffered a compensable work-related injury. We affirm.

FACTS

At the time of Matute’s injury, she was fifty-three years old and had been a resident of the United States for nineteen years. She emigrated from Honduras to Miami, Florida, and subsequently moved with her husband to Columbia, South Carolina, more than six years ago. Since residing in Columbia, Matute has worked in the housekeeping department at Palmetto Baptist.

On March 20, 2008, Matute completed her shift at Palmetto Baptist, clocked out, and approximately ten minutes later, she exited the emergency room lobby onto Sumter Street. After turning right onto Sumter Street, Matute fell on the sidewalk and broke her right wrist. She testified it was “an unexpected stumble,” and she fell because she “brushed the end of the shoe one against the other.” At the hearing before the single commissioner, Matute stated the sidewalk was level and free of defects. When questioned, Matute testified her route out of Palmetto Baptist was neither the exclusive nor required means of ingress and egress, but she typically used that exit because the bus stop was located across the street from that exit. On the day of her accident, she was not taking the bus home. Matute subsequently returned to work and resumed using the same exit.

After her accident, Matute timely filed a Form 50, requesting a hearing and seeking temporary total disability benefits as well as medical treatment for her right wrist. Palmetto Baptist responded -with a Form 51, denying Matute suffered a compensable work-related injury. After a hearing on August 15, 2008, the single commissioner found Matute’s injury was compensable on the ground that she injured herself within a reasonable time and distance after her shift ended. The single commissioner issued a written order bearing a “re *294 ceived” stamp dated September 22, 2008, and a certificate of service stamp dated September 24, 2008. Palmetto Baptist asserted it never received the order on that date and was not in receipt of the order until it inquired to the single commissioner on October 24, 2008, as to whether an order had been filed. After receiving the order by facsimile, Palmetto Baptist promptly filed a Form 30 to request commission review on October 28, 2008. Palmetto Baptist’s appeal was administratively dismissed because its appeal was filed outside the fourteen-day appeal period prescribed by South Carolina Code of Regulations 67-701(A) (Supp.2009).

Palmetto Baptist appealed, and the full commission of the Workers’ Compensation Commission (full commission) 1 found good cause existed to reinstate the appeal. The appellate panel then reversed the single commissioner on the' merits, finding Matute’s injury was not compensable on three grounds: (1) Matute was not on Palmetto Baptist’s premises at the time of her injury; (2) Matute’s injury did not fall within any recognized exception to the “going and coming” rule; and (3) no causal relationship existed between Matute’s fall and her employment.. This appeal followed.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

When reviewing an appeal from the Workers’ Compensation Commission, this court may not weigh the evidence or substitute its judgment for that of the appellate panel as to the weight of evidence on questions of fact. Therrell v. Jerry’s Inc., 370 S.C. 22, 25, 633 S.E.2d 893, 894-95 (2006). However, this court may reverse the appellate panel’s decision if it is based on an error of law. Id.

LAW/ANALYSIS

1. Jurisdiction to Reinstate Appeal

Matute claims the full commission erred in reinstating Palmetto Baptist’s appeal because Palmetto Baptist failed to *295 timely appeal the single commissioner’s decision. We disagree.

Regulation 67-701 states:

Either party or both may request Commission review of the Hearing Commissioner’s decision by filing the original and three copies of a Form 30, Request for Commission Review, with the Commission’s Judicial Department within fourteen days of the day the Commissioner’s order is received. ... The Commission will not accept for filing a Form 30 that is not postmarked or delivered to the Commission by the fourteenth day from the date of receipt of the Hearing Commissioner’s order.

25A S.C.Code Ann. Regs. 67-701 (Supp.2009) (emphasis added). Despite the mandates of Regulation 67-701, “[a]n appeal administratively dismissed by the Judicial Department may be reinstated for a good cause upon motion to the Commission.” 25A S.C.Code Ann. Regs. 67-705(H)(4) (Supp.2009).

The full commission’s determination that Palmetto Baptist demonstrated good cause to reinstate its appeal is supported by the record. The single commissioner received Matute’s proposed order on September 22, 2008, as evidenced by the “received front desk” stamp on the order. 2 The certificate of service on the order stated a copy of the order was mailed first-class to all parties on September 24, 2008. However, Palmetto Baptist claimed it never received an order, either due to inadvertent improper service or nonservice, until it inquired to the single commissioner on October 24, 2008. Palmetto Baptist timely filed a Form 30 four days after it received the order as required by Regulation '67-701. See Regs. 67-701 (stating a party may request commission review “within fourteen days of the day the Commissioner’s order is received ”) (emphasis added).

Because the full commission has the discretion to reinstate an appeal pursuant to Regulation 67-705, and Palmetto Baptist demonstrated good cause as to why it did not file its Form *296 30 until October 28, 2008, the full commission was -within its discretion to reinstate Palmetto Baptist’s appeal.

2. Compensability of Injury

Matute contends the appellate panel erred in reversing the single commissioner’s award because Matute suffered a compensable work-related injury. We disagree.

As a general rule, an employee going to or coming from the place where his work is to be performed is not engaged in performing any service growing out of and incidental to his employment, and, therefore, an injury sustained by accident at such time does not arise out of and in the course of his employment. Gray v. Club Group, Ltd., 339 S.C.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
705 S.E.2d 472, 391 S.C. 291, 2011 S.C. App. LEXIS 4, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/matute-v-palmetto-health-baptist-scctapp-2011.