COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA 

Present: Judges Baker, Willis and Bray 

Argued at Norfolk, Virginia 

J.H. MILES SEAFOOD CO./J.H. MILES CO., INC. 

 AND FIDELITY & CASUALTY INSURANCE CO. 

 MEMORANDUM OPINION* BY 

v. Record No. 2391-96-1 JUDGE RICHARD S. BRAY 

 APRIL 8, 1997 

CAROL A. GUYTON 

 FROM THE VIRGINIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION 

 Bradford C. Jacob (William C. Walker; Taylor 

& Walker, P.C., on brief), for appellants. 

 Kevin L. Hubbard for appellee. 

 J.H. Miles Seafood Co. and carrier, Fidelity & Casualty 

Insurance Co., (collectively "employer") appeal from a decision 

of the Virginia Workers' Compensation Commission awarding 

benefits to Carol A. Guyton (claimant) for bilateral plantar 

fascitis. On appeal, employer complains that the commission 

erroneously concluded that claimant suffered from a compensable 

occupational disease. We agree and reverse the decision of the 

commission. 

 The parties are fully conversant with the record, and this 

memorandum opinion recites only those facts necessary to a 

disposition of the appeal. 

 A claimant seeking benefits under the Virginia Workers' 

Compensation Act must prove either "an injury by accident or an 

occupational disease 'arising out of and in the course of the 

employment.'" Holly Farms Foods, Inc. v. Carter, 15 Va. App. 29, 

 

 *Pursuant to Code § 17-116.010 this opinion is not 

designated for publication. 
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37, 422 S.E.2d 165, 169 (1992) (quoting Code § 65.2-101). 

However, "job-related impairments resulting from cumulative 

trauma . . . , however labeled or however defined, are, as a 

matter of law, not compensable under the . . . Act." The 

Stenrich Group v. Jemmott, 251 Va. 186, 199, 467 S.E.2d 795, 802 

(1996). This principle applies to all "cumulative trauma 

conditions, regardless of whether they are caused by repetitive 

motion." Allied Fibers v. Rhodes, 23 Va. App. 101, 104, 474 

S.E.2d 829, 830 (1996). 

 Claimant asserts that we are not controlled by Jemmott and 

its progeny in this instance because her physicians diagnosed an 

"occupational disease" and "there are no diagnoses by the 

claimant's physician[s], nor any other evidence, that repetitive 

motion or cumulative traumas were the cause and/or basis of her 

present impairment." However, "just because a doctor opines that 

a particular impairment is a disease does not necessarily make it 

so," Jemmott, 251 Va. at 198, 467 S.E.2d at 801, and the evidence 

clearly supported the commission's finding that claimant's malady 

resulted from prolonged standing, a circumstance necessitated by 

her occupation.1

 

 

 1Dr. Molligan's notes reflect that claimant's employment 

"require[d] her to stand for long periods of time on concrete," 

and claimant herself testified that Dr. Molligan "told [her] that 

. . . [her condition] did come from [her] job from [her] doing a 

lot of standing." She also testified that Dr. Gibbs advised that 

her condition "came from [her] job, from [her] doing a lot of 

standing on thin rubber mats, working on concrete all day long, 

standing, only taking ten-minute breaks and not really taking 

breaks like [she] should. . . . [J]ust constantly standing." 
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 In Rhodes, we applied Jemmott to conclude that hearing loss 

caused by employment related noise exposure is a noncompensable 

cumulative trauma injury. 23 Va. App. at 102-04, 474 S.E.2d at 

830-31. We noted in Rhodes that hearing loss "does not fit the 

classic definition of injury, namely a sudden event produced by 

immediate trauma," but, nevertheless, "'belongs under the general 

heading of traumatic injury because it is strictly a physical

force.'" Id. at 103, 474 S.E.2d at 830 (emphasis added) (quoting 

Attorney's Textbook of Medicine § 84.65 (Roscoe N. Gray & Louise 

Gordy, eds., 3d ed. 1995)). Similarly, the undisputed evidence 

here makes clear that the prolonged physical force of the 

concrete floor against claimant's feet gradually caused her 

impairment, a noncompensable cumulative trauma. 

 Accordingly, we reverse the award. 

 Reversed and dismissed.