Injury is Compensable When It’s an ‘Accident,’ Carolina Appeals Court Rules

A nurse who injured herself while trying to move a 350-pound patient is owed workers’ compensation benefits, the North Carolina Court of Appeals decided in an opinion posted Tuesday.

That may seem like an obvious conclusion to some, given the fact that moving heavy patients is one of the leading causes of injury for nurses. But it highlights the unusual nature of the North Carolina workers’ comp statute. The law, unlike those in most states, requires that a claimant prove that she was injured, not only during the course and scope of employment, but also that it was an “accident” that caused the injury.

An accident has been defined by statute and case law as an unexpected event that involves the interruption of the normal work routine.

“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 Workers’ Compensation Act,” the appeals court panel wrote, quoting from a 1985 court ruling.

In Jennifer Aldridge vs. Novant Health, the court explained that nurse Aldridge was asked to assist in changing an obese patient’s soiled bed pad at a rehabilitation hospital in 2018. A nurse assistant pulled the patient while Aldridge pushed from the other side, attempting to roll the patient over a bit so the pad could be pulled out.

When Aldridge pulled the pad, the patient’s weight was still on it, and she had to use extra force. That’s when she felt a snap and a sharp pain in her arm, shoulder, neck and back. She later required surgery. Novant Health, the self-insured employer and owner of the hospital in Salisbury, denied the claim.

The company’s position was that the injury was not the result of an accident but was part of Aldridge’s regular work routine. That left Aldridge in the position of having to prove that moving the patient was unusual. She and others testified that in most cases, three to four workers help with the procedure, but in this case, it was just two. Also, the patient did not help at all as most patients do.

A deputy commissioner at the state’s Industrial Commission sided with Aldridge and found that she was, in fact, engaged in an unusually difficult task that she had never performed with only one other person. The full commission upheld the award of benefits, and Novant appealed. The appeals court, in the opinion written by Judge Toby Hampson, affirmed the ruling.

Attorneys in the case could not be reached for comment Tuesday. But other law firms have acknowledged the trickiness of winning some comp claims in the Tarheel State.

“It may surprise you to learn that the word ‘accident’ is a potential pitfall for North Carolina employees who are injured at work,” the Wilder Pantazis law firm in Charlotte wrote on its website. “In many other states, the injury itself is the accident. However, in North Carolina, an injury, in and of itself, is not an accident.”

Matt Harbin, a claimants’ attorney in Raleigh, noted that if the nurse had been hurt while following normal procedure, with a team of four people to lift the patient, her injury would probably not have been compensated.

“In some ways, you could say that gives the employer no incentive to make a safe environment,” he said. The employer “might answer that if the nurse in this case had followed the normal routine, she may have avoided the injury.”

The North Carolina law does allow some exceptions. If the worker feels immediate pain in the spine while performing work duties, that is often considered to be an accident. The statute also allows for occupational diseases and cumulative trauma injuries, such carpal tunnel syndrome.

Death Benefits Claim Must be Separate and Timely

In another decision handed down Tuesday, the appeals court panel found that a widow had waited too late for file for death benefits, even though the worker had already filed for compensation when he died.

In Angela McCauley vs. North Carolina A&T University, the court explained that Stephen McCauley injured his back in 2015 while working for the university. A month later, he filed a claim for temporary total disability. Ten days later, he died.

Meanwhile, the college had begun paying the TTD benefits. After a meeting with the employer’s human resources department, Angela McCauley said she thought she had signed all the necessary papers to qualify for survivor benefits. When she discovered otherwise, three years later, she filed a claim and asked for a hearing.

But the Industrial Commission found that it was too late. State law requires that claims for death benefits be filed within two years of the incident. The commission also said it lacked jurisdiction since the claim was not timely filed.

The appeals court affirmed the commission’s stance. Appeals Court Judge Jeff Carpenter wrote: “We hold plaintiff did not assert a claim for compensation until her filing of a Form 33 on 18 January 2018, more than two years after her cause of action arose, and decedent’s filing of a Form 18 within the two-year deadline cannot qualify as a filing for the purposes of plaintiff’s separate cause of action.”

Death and funeral benefits were not at issue in the worker’s original claim, Carpenter wrote. The cause of death and whether it was work-related was not at issue in the appeal.

Judge John Arrowood dissented. He wrote that the law is clear that North Carolina lawmakers intended that a separate claim for death benefits is not required.

Topics Legislation