Bumgarner v. Gaston Cty. Schools

2. Key Risk Management Services provided defendant-employer with workers' compensation insurance at the time of the incident that is the subject of this claim.

3. Plaintiff was twenty-nine years old at the time of the hearing before the Chief Deputy Commissioner.

4. Plaintiff began employment with defendant-employer at North Belmont Elementary School in Belmont, North Carolina, during the 2002 — 2003 school year. Plaintiff transferred to Woodhill Elementary School in Gastonia, North Carolina in August 2003.

5. On January 15, 2004, plaintiff sustained an injury to her right knee when she stood up after sitting on a child-sized chair. Plaintiff was seated on the chair while working with a child in her classroom. When plaintiff rose from the chair, she felt a "pop" in her right knee.

6. Plaintiff testified that she sat in child-sized chairs in the regular course and scope of her employment as an assistant kindergarten teacher at both Woodhill Elementary and North Belmont Elementary School during the 2002 — 2003 school year.

7. Additionally, plaintiff testified that she was trained to sit in the child-sized chairs in performing her job as a kindergarten teacher's assistant in order to work at the children's eye level.

8. Plaintiff, upon specific questioning, recounted that there was nothing out of the ordinary about the incident that caused her January 15, 2004 knee injury other than the "pop" she felt and the injury itself.

9. Bobbi Holland, principal at Woodhill Elementary at the time of the alleged incident, testified that the arrangement of the classroom in which plaintiff worked at Woodhill Elementary required teachers and assistants to sit in child-sized chairs in order to interact with students. Ms. Holland's credible testimony corroborates plaintiff's testimony that plaintiff frequently used child-sized chairs in the course and scope of her job at Woodhill Elementary.

10. No evidence in the record indicates anything out of the ordinary about the incident that caused plaintiff's January 15, 2004 knee injury.

11. Plaintiff was out of work as a result of her right knee injury from January 15, 2004 until March 15, 2004.

12. Plaintiff remains employed by defendant-employer.

2. In the present case, plaintiff's January 15, 2004 right knee injury occurred while she was working in the normal course and scope of her employment with defendant-employer as a kindergarten teacher's assistant. However, there was no unforeseen or unusual event that amounted to an interruption of the normal work routine. Other than the injury itself, plaintiff has not proven by the greater weight of the evidence that the injury qualifies as a compensable injury by "accident" under the Workers' Compensation Act. N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-2(6); Porter v. Shelby Knit, Inc.,4 N.C. App. 22, 264 S.E.2d 360 (1980).

2. Each side shall bear its own costs.

This the 15^th day of July 2005.

S/______________________ LAURA KRANIFELD MAVRETIC COMMISSIONER

CONCURRING:

S/_____________ THOMAS J. BOLCH COMMISSIONER

CONCURRING IN A SEPARATE OPINION:

S/_______________ CHRISTOPHER SCOTT COMMISSIONER

I concur in finding that plaintiff has failed to prove that she sustained a compensable injury by accident pursuant to the Workers' Compensation Act; however, I would further illustrate the well-settled tenet that an injury that occurs under normal work conditions is not considered an accident arising out of employment for purposes of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-2(6). Trudell v. Seven Lakes Heating Air ConditioningCo., 55 N.C. App. 89, 284 S.E.2d 538 (1981); Poe v. Acme Bldrs.,69 N.C. App. 147, 316 S.E.2d 338, cert. denied, 311 N.C. 762, 321 S.E.2d 22 143 (1984).

Our courts have routinely held that no matter how great a claimant's injury, if it is caused by an event that involves both an employee's normal work routine and normal working conditions, it will not be considered to have been caused by an accident. Swindell v. Davis BoatWorks, Inc., 78 N.C. App. 393, 337 S.E.2d 592 (1985), cert. denied,316 N.C. 385, 342 S.E.2d 908 (1986). Further, once an activity, even a strenuous or otherwise unusual activity, becomes a part of the employee's normal work routine, an injury caused by such activity is not the result of an interruption of the work routine, or otherwise an injury by accident under the Act. Bowles v. CTS of Asheville, Inc.,77 N.C. App. 547, 335 S.E.2d 502 (1985).

In the present case, the evidence of record shows that it was a normal part of plaintiff's work routine for plaintiff, a teacher's assistant, to sit in child-sized chairs during the course and scope of her employment in order to work at the eye level of her students. Thus, the injury plaintiff sustained to her right knee while standing up from the child-sized chair occurred under normal work conditions and is, thus, not an accident arising out of employment for purposes of N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-2(6). Consequently, I concur in the denial of plaintiff's claim.

This 18^th day of July 2005.

S/_______________ CHRISTOPHER SCOTT COMMISSIONER