Case Name: Denise MEDEIROS, Appellant, v. RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES OF AMERICA, and Adjustco, Appellees
Court: Florida District Court of Appeal
Jurisdiction: Florida
Decision Date: 1986-01-07
Citations: 481 So. 2d 92
Docket Number: No. BF-13
Parties: Denise MEDEIROS, Appellant, v. RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES OF AMERICA, and Adjustco, Appellees.
Judges: McCORD, GUYTE P., Jr., (Ret. Associate Judge), concurs.
Reporter: Southern Reporter, Second Series
Volume: 481
Pages: 92–95

Head Matter:
Denise MEDEIROS, Appellant, v. RESIDENTIAL COMMUNITIES OF AMERICA, and Adjustco, Appellees.
No. BF-13.
District Court of Appeal of Florida, First District.
Jan. 7, 1986.
George J. Adler, Orlando, for appellant.
Robert G. Brightman, Orlando, for appel-lees.

Opinion:
NIMMONS, Judge.
Claimant appeals a workers' compensation order finding that her accident did not arise out of her employment and therefore denying her claim for temporary total disability and other benefits. We affirm.
Claimant, a thirty-five year old woman, sustained injuries in a non-compensable automobile accident on February 10, 1984. This accident resulted in headaches and dizziness. She missed approximately five days of work. She returned to her job as a runner for the employer herein and, on the morning of February 29, 1984, was making her first delivery when she fell on a stairway and injured her knee.
Dr. Bixon, her treating physician, and Mr. Lenhart, her supervisor, both testified that she told them the accident occurred when she became dizzy, blacked out and fell down. Dr. Bixon testified that on February 24, 1984, claimant was unable to perform the heel-to-toe test without becoming dizzy and losing her balance. At the hearing, claimant testified that she had not become dizzy but did not know why she fell. The deputy commissioner ruled that claimant's accident was caused by dizziness from the previous non-work-related automobile accident, and that the present accident did not arise out of claimant's employment.
When a claimant suffers from an idiopathic, or pre-existing, condition which results in injury, the injury is compensable only if the claimant can show that it "arose out of" his employment. Southern Bell Telephone and Telegraph Company v. McCook, 355 So.2d 1166, 1168 (Fla.1977), House v. Preferred Auto Leasing, 476 So.2d 1337 (Fla. 1st DCA 1985). An injury "arises out of" employment when the employment necessarily exposes the claimant to conditions that substantially contribute to the risk of injury, conditions which the claimant would not normally encounter during his non-employment life. Legakis v. Sultan & Sons, 383 So.2d 938, 940 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980) (held compensable where a vapor spray emitted from a steam press caused claimant to turn her head, thus activating her pre-existing labyrinthitis causing her to fall and injure herself).
The claimant herein has not demonstrated that her physical surroundings on the job in any way contributed to the risk of injury any more than they would have in non-employment life. Although there was evidence that she had no stairs in her own home, there was no evidence that the stairway in any way contributed to the risk of injury, either by tripping on a stairstep or otherwise. On the contrary, the evidence is that she became dizzy, a symptom she had been complaining of since the accident, and fell striking her knee.
The claimant relies in large part upon Lovett v. Gore Newspaper Company, 419 So.2d 306 (Fla.1982) and Cheney v. F.E.C. News Distribution Company, 382 So.2d 1291 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980). Those cases are distinguishable from the case at bar. In Lovett, the deputy found that the tiled concrete floor was a special and increased hazard to Lovett's pre-existing back condition. The deputy also found that the claimant was required to work two hours beyond her normal eight-hour shift despite her protestations that she was not feeling well. The Supreme Court held that because of these factors it could not fairly be said that Lovett would just as likely have sustained an injury such as the one that occurred if she had been in her own home. 419 So.2d at 308. In Cheney, this court reversed the deputy's denial of benefits because, although the condition which caused Cheney's dizziness did not arise from his job, the activity demanded by his work increased the chances of his becoming dizzy. The activity which Cheney was engaged in at the time of the accident included bending, twisting, and turning necessary to move stacks of magazines which resulted in dizziness, falling, and striking her head on the store's terrazo floor.
On the other hand, in the case at bar, the record supports the deputy's finding that the claimant became dizzy and fell for no reason related to her employment. The facts in this case are closer to those involved in Federal Electric Corp. v. Best, 274 So.2d 886 (Fla.1973). Best was standing in his place of employment when he gasped, fell and struck his head on a desk thereby sustaining head injuries. The cause of his fall was a non-work-related grand mal-type seizure. The Industrial Relations Commission reversed the deputy commissioner's denial of the claim for benefits. However, the Supreme Court reversed the IRC, observing that it found nothing in the record to indicate that the fall was in any way related to Best's job. Id. at 888.
We conclude that there was competent, substantial evidence to support the deputy's finding that the claimant's injury did not arise out of her employment.
AFFIRMED.
McCORD, GUYTE P., Jr., (Ret. Associate Judge), concurs.
ZEHMER, J., dissents with written opinion.