Opinion ID: 1389048
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 6

Heading: Definiteness of time

Text: Employer contends the injury resulting from repetitive trauma has no definite time of occurrence and therefore it is not compensable as an injury by accident. Definiteness of time, while relevant to proving causation, is not required to prove an injury qualifies as an injury by accident. For instance, in Sturkie v. Ballenger Corp., 268 S.C. 536, 235 S.E.2d 120 (1977), we found the claimant's emphysema, which developed gradually, was caused by repeated exposure to high humidity and dust on the job and was therefore compensable as an injury by accident. Similarly, in Stokes, supra, we found a psychological disorder which developed over a period of months compensable as an injury by accident. Further, under S.C.Code Ann. § 42-1-160 (Supp.2001), a disease, which typically has a gradual onset, is compensable as an injury by accident when it results naturally and unavoidably from the accident. This provision indicates the legislature intended an accident to be compensable under the Act, even where the effects of the accident develop gradually. The fact that a repetitive trauma injury is disease-like in its gradual onset does not preclude it from coverage as an injury by accident. Here, it is uncontested that Claimant's carpal tunnel syndrome was caused by her work activities. [4] The lack of a definite time of injury is therefore not dispositive.