By Jared S. Renfroe
Susan English v. G4S Secure Solutions
Docket No. 2016-05-0261
State File No. 98712-2015
Filed September 27, 2016
Summary
In this case, the employee’s fall and injury were held to be idiopathic by the trial court, and this holding was affirmed by the Appeals Board because of the employee’s inability to describe an injury arising primarily out of her employment, i.e., one resulting from a hazard incident to the employment.
Facts
The employee fell on the sidewalk on her employer’s premises while leaving work, sustaining injuries. She testified that the sidewalk was covered with leaves, but she could not specifically state that the leaves made her fall. She stated, “It had to have been the leaves,” causing her to fall because the ground was otherwise flat.
The trial court found that she had not presented sufficient evidence to support a finding that she was likely to prevail at a hearing on the merits that her fall arose primarily out of and in the course and scope of her employment, as she could not remember the fall and did not know for sure that she slipped on the leaves. The trial court held that the fall was idiopathic in nature.
Holding
The Appeals Board affirmed the decision of the trial court in a short opinion, holding that because of the employee’s inability to describe an injury arising primarily out of her employment, i.e., one resulting from a hazardous incident to the employment, her fall was idiopathic.
Jared S. Renfroe is an attorney for Spicer Rudstrom PLLC. He focuses his legal practice on litigation throughout Tennessee. He concentrates primarily on premises liability, business and commercial representation, employment practices litigation, professional liability, insurance defense, and workers’ compensation.
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