Ruthruff v. TOWER HOLDING CORP./TOWER AUTOMOTIVE, INC.

684 N.W.2d 888
CourtMichigan Court of Appeals
DecidedJuly 7, 2004
Docket246935
StatusPublished

This text of 684 N.W.2d 888 (Ruthruff v. TOWER HOLDING CORP./TOWER AUTOMOTIVE, INC.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ruthruff v. TOWER HOLDING CORP./TOWER AUTOMOTIVE, INC., 684 N.W.2d 888 (Mich. Ct. App. 2004).

Opinion

684 N.W.2d 888 (2004)
261 Mich.App. 613

Jimmy D. RUTHRUFF, Plaintiff-Appellant,
v.
TOWER HOLDING CORPORATION/TOWER AUTOMOTIVE, INC., and American Manufacturers Mutual Insurance Company, Defendants-Appellees.

Docket No. 246935.

Court of Appeals of Michigan.

Submitted February 10, 2004, at Lansing.
Decided April 22, 2004, at 9:10 a.m.
Released for Publication July 7, 2004.

*889 Farr Oosterhouse & Krissoff (by Kenneth R. Oosterhouse), Grand Rapids, for the plaintiff.

*890 Smith Haughey Rice & Roegge, P.C. (by Lance R. Mather), Grand Rapids, for the defendants.

Before: HOEKSTRA, P.J., and FITZGERALD and TALBOT, JJ.

ON RECONSIDERATION

PER CURIAM.

Plaintiff Jimmy D. Ruthruff appeals by leave granted a February 3, 2003, order of the Worker's Compensation Appellate Commission (WCAC) affirming a magistrate's decision to deny benefits on the ground that plaintiff failed to establish a compensable back injury. We reverse and remand for further proceedings.

I

On February 26, 2001, while employed by defendant Tower Holding Corporation as a welder, plaintiff parked his vehicle in Tower's parking lot. He then opened the vehicle's door, put one leg out of the door, placed his foot on the ground, and turned to the right to pick up his "dinner pail." As he twisted back towards the open door, he felt a snap in his back. Pain immediately ran down his left leg and up his back. Plaintiff sat in the vehicle for several minutes before going into Tower's facility and preparing to begin work, even though his back continued to hurt. Plaintiff was unable to complete his shift due to back pain and stiffness and was sent home. In May 2001 an MRI (magnetic resonance imaging) revealed a herniated disc at the L4-5 area and a bulging disc at the L5-S1 area. Plaintiff returned to work without restrictions on July 27, 2001. Shortly after beginning work, he found himself unable to straighten up and he experienced pain radiating up his back and down his leg. Defendant Tower assigned plaintiff to light duty work. Plaintiff performed light duty work from July 27 until his last day of work with Tower on August 27, 2001, when Tower informed plaintiff that there was no light duty work available because his injury was not work-related and, therefore, not covered by worker's compensation.

Plaintiff commenced the instant worker's compensation proceeding and argued that he was entitled to the presumption found in M.C.L. § 418.301(3). The magistrate disagreed, and refused to apply the presumption after finding that the instant case was not a "going to and coming from work" case within the meaning of M.C.L. § 418.301(3). The magistrate further found that plaintiff's injury failed to arise out of and in the course of employment because the circumstances of his employment neither caused nor aggravated an injury, nor increased the risk of injury. The WCAC affirmed without addressing whether the presumption found in M.C.L. § 418.301(3) applied. Instead, the WCAC determined that plaintiff failed to show that his injuries arose out of and in the course of employment where "it cannot be said that plaintiff's employment either aggravated or accelerated the harm when he reached for his lunch pail."

II

Our review in worker's compensation cases is limited to questions of law. Findings of fact made or adopted by the WCAC are conclusive on appeal, absent fraud, if there is any competent evidence in the record to support them. Mudel v. Great Atlantic & Pacific Tea Co., 462 Mich. 691, 706, 709-710, 726, 614 N.W.2d 607 (2000); Layman v. Newkirk Electric Assoc., Inc., 458 Mich. 494, 498, 581 N.W.2d 244 (1998), overruled in part on other grounds, Mudel, supra at 697, 713-714, 614 N.W.2d 607. We do not weigh or balance the evidence, but instead merely determine whether "any evidence" exists to support the WCAC's decision. Mudel, supra at 727, 614 N.W.2d 607. A decision of the WCAC is subject to reversal if the *891 commission operated within the wrong legal framework, or if the decision was based on erroneous legal reasoning. DiBenedetto v. West Shore Hosp., 461 Mich. 394, 401-402, 605 N.W.2d 300 (2000).

III

An employee is entitled to receive worker's compensation benefits for personal injury arising out of and in the course of employment by an employer who is subject to the Worker's Disability Compensation Act (WDCA), M.C.L. § 418.101 et seq.; M.C.L. § 418.301(1). As a general rule, an employee who suffers injury while going to or coming from work cannot receive worker's compensation benefits. Simkins v. Gen. Motors Corp. (After Remand), 453 Mich. 703, 712, 556 N.W.2d 839 (1996). The coming-and-going provision of the WDCA creates an exception to the general rule, however:

An employee going to or from his or her work, while on the premises where the employee's work is to be performed, and within a reasonable time before and after his or her working hours, is presumed to be in the course of his or her employment. Notwithstanding this presumption, an injury incurred in the pursuit of an activity the major purpose of which is social or recreational is not covered under this act. Any cause of action brought for such an injury is not subject to section 131. [M.C.L. § 418.301(3).]

This statutory provision "creates a presumption that the employee is `in the course of' employment while the employee is on the premises where the employee's work is to be performed." Thomason v. Contour Fabricators, Inc., 469 Mich. 953, 671 N.W.2d 41 (2003).

Plaintiff argues that the circumstances of his injury fall within the ambit of the coming-and-going provision and, therefore, that the WCAC incorrectly applied the law when the commission refused to apply the statutory presumption in this case. We agree. The undisputed facts establish that plaintiff suffered his back injury in the parking lot of defendant employer as he was alighting from his vehicle, which was parked on defendant employer's premises, and preparing to walk from his vehicle to defendant employer's facility to begin his shift. Such factual circumstances fall comfortably within the ambit of the statute. Accordingly, plaintiff was entitled to the presumption. The WCAC erred as a matter of law when it failed to accord plaintiff the presumption to which he was entitled. The WCAC also erred as a matter of law when it blurred the distinction between the "in the course of" and the "arising out of" tests and treated them as one test. Thomason, supra at 953, 671 N.W.2d 41.

IV

Defendant employer argues that, irrespective of these errors, a remand is unnecessary because the WCAC correctly determined that plaintiff's injury was not one "arising out of" employment.

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Ruthruff v. Tower Holding Corp.
684 N.W.2d 888 (Michigan Court of Appeals, 2004)

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684 N.W.2d 888, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ruthruff-v-tower-holding-corptower-automotive-inc-michctapp-2004.