COURT OF APPEALS OF VIRGINIA 

Present: Judges Coleman, Willis and Senior Judge Hodges 

Argued at Norfolk, Virginia 

R & R CONSTRUCTION CORPORATION and 

 NATIONWIDE MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY 

 OPINION BY 

v. Record No. 3135-96-1 JUDGE SAM W. COLEMAN III 

 AUGUST 12, 1997 

JON STUART HILL 

 FROM THE VIRGINIA WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION 

 Fay F. Spence (Gene A. Woolard; Spence & 

Whitlow, on brief), for appellants. 

 Terrence K. Martin (Overman, Cowardin & 

Martin, P.L.C., on brief), for appellee. 

 R & R Construction Corporation and its insurer (employer) 

appeal the decision of the Workers' Compensation Commission 

awarding Jon Stuart Hill (claimant) temporary total disability 

benefits as a result of a back injury that he sustained when he 

moved several five-gallon paint buckets. Finding no error, we 

affirm the commission's decision. 

 Viewed in the light most favorable to the claimant, the 

prevailing party, the evidence proved that claimant was moving 

five to seven five-gallon paint buckets from one location to 

another within a storage shed when he "started feeling just a 

sore place" in his lower back. As soon as he felt this 

"soreness," he stopped moving the buckets and sat down. Claimant 

testified that "the longer I sat there the more the pain started 

really getting bad then. It was like my back was almost getting 

ready to lock up on me." 
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 After claimant was injured, he reported his injury to his 

supervisor, who had come to the storage shed. Claimant attempted 

to continue working but was unable to do so. The next morning, 

he again attempted to work but could not stay because he was in 

pain. The following day, claimant went to the doctor and was 

later diagnosed with a right paracentral disc herniation at 

L2-L3, a mild disc bulge at L3-L4, and a central subligamentous 

disc herniation at L4-L5. 

 "To qualify for workers' compensation benefits, an 

employee's injuries must result from an event 'arising out of' 

and 'in the course of' the employment." Pinkerton's, Inc. v. 

Helmes, 242 Va. 378, 380, 410 S.E.2d 646, 647 (1991). "A finding 

by the commission that an injury arose out of and in the course 

of employment is a mixed finding of law and fact and is properly 

reviewable on appeal." Dublin Garment Co. v. Jones, 2 Va. App. 

165, 167, 342 S.E.2d 638, 638 (1986). 

 "In order to carry his burden of proving an 'injury by 

accident,' a claimant must prove that the cause of his injury was 

an identifiable incident or sudden precipitating event and that 

it resulted in an obvious sudden mechanical or structural change 

in the body." Morris v. Morris, 238 Va. 578, 589, 385 S.E.2d 

858, 865 (1989) (emphasis in original). A disc herniation is a 

mechanical or structural change in the body. The employer 

contends, however, that claimant's injury was gradually incurred 

over the course of moving several paint buckets and was not the 
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result of a "sudden precipitating event." Although a claimant 

must prove a "sudden precipitating event" that caused the injury, 

"[t]o constitute injury by accident it is not necessary that 

there should be an extraordinary occurrence in or about the work 

engaged in." Kemp v. Tidewater Kiewit, 7 Va. App. 360, 363, 373 

S.E.2d 725, 726 (1988) (quoting Derby v. Swift & Co., 188 Va. 

336, 344, 49 S.E.2d 417, 421 (1948)). "Sudden" as used in this 

context means an "immediate" event that causes or precipitates an 

injury; "sudden" is not used here to connote an unexpected

consequence. See Webster's Third New International Dictionary

2284 (1981). Thus, "sudden precipitating" event is one that 

"immediately" causes an injury, as distinguished from an injury 

that appears or occurs gradually. See Stenrich Group v. Jemmott, 

251 Va. 186, 467 S.E.2d 795 (1996). However, an injury or 

injuries may be caused by one or several "sudden [or immediate] 

events" that cause the mechanical changes to occur in the body. 

 The commission did not err by finding that claimant suffered 

 the herniated discs as the result of a compensable accident 

"arising out of" and "in the course of" his employment. While 

moving the five-gallon paint buckets, claimant felt a pain in his 

back and stopped moving the buckets. There was no evidence that 

the herniated discs occurred gradually or over a period of time. 

 There was no evidence that claimant had a history of a prior 

disc problem. The commission, as finder of fact, could 

reasonably have found on these facts that while lifting the five 
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to seven buckets the claimant felt "soreness" which was the pain 

that he was experiencing as the discs herniated as a result of 

his lifting one or more of the five to seven buckets. Lifting 

one or more of the buckets was the "sudden precipitating event" 

or events that caused the discs to herniate, which was "an 

obvious sudden . . . structural change in the body." The fact 

that the claimant did not or could not identify precisely which 

bucket or buckets he was lifting when the disc or discs herniated 

does not constitute a failure to prove that an immediate or 

sudden event or events caused the discs to herniate. Unlike the 

claimant in Morris, who, after unloading seven steel doors from a 

truck, later developed soreness in his back and could not recall 

a specific incident that caused his injury, claimant immediately 

felt "soreness" while he lifted the buckets. These facts support 

the commission's finding that when claimant felt "soreness" as he 

was lifting several buckets he was experiencing pain associated 

with the discs herniating, which were sudden mechanical or 

structural changes in the body. Accordingly, we affirm the 

commission's decision. 

 Affirmed.