Court Opinion

ID: 9592304
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 00:12:47.321965+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:17:59.789531
License: Public Domain

Judge Hunter
concurring in part and dissenting in part.
I respectfully dissent from the majority opinion in its reversal of summary judgment in favor of Shaner Operating on the issue of whether plaintiffs remedy is limited to those available under the North Carolina Workers’ Compensation Act (“Act”).
The general rule which applies to this case is when an employee is injured while going to or from his place of work, upon premises owned or controlled by his employer, and his act involves no unreasonable delay, then the injury is generally deemed to have arisen out of and in the course of the employment. Bass v. Mecklenburg County, 258 N.C. 226, 128 S.E.2d 570 (1962). However, the employment must be traceable as a contributing proximate cause of the injury in order for it to have “arisen out of’ the employment. Id. The court is justified in upholding the award as “arising out of employment” “[w]here any reasonable relationship to the employment exists, or employment is a contributory cause[.]” Harless v. Flynn, 1 N.C. App. 448, 455, 162 S.E.2d 47, 52 (1968) (quoting Allred v. Allred-Gardner, Inc., 253 N.C. 554, 557, 117 S.E.2d 476, 479 (1960)).
In Gallimore v. Marilyn’s Shoes, 292 N.C. 399, 233 S.E.2d 529 (1977), cited in the majority opinion, the North Carolina Supreme Court held that the injury did not arise out of employment where an employee was abducted in the shopping mall parking lot as she left work because the risk of being robbed or abducted was one common to the neighborhood. The employee in Gallimore was not carrying anything which indicated she was transporting money or bank deposits for her employer. In that case, the Court noted that a parking lot at the mall in question was well-lighted and concluded that the assault on the employee was not peculiar to the employment as it could happen to anyone who patronized the shopping mall, as employees did not park in a separate area. The Court noted that “[t]he tragic and untimely death of Miss Gallimore was caused by the vicious and unreasoned criminal act of Darrell Lee Young, not by an accident arising out of her employment.” Id. at 405, 233 S.E.2d at 533.
*404In another case involving an assault in a parking lot, this Court concluded that a causal connection did exist between the employee’s death and her employment when she was abducted from the employee parking lot as she was leaving work carrying work materials, she was assaulted and killed on an adjacent street, and the assailant was a co-employee. Wake County Hosp. Sys. v. Safety Nat. Casualty Corp., 127 N.C. App. 33, 487 S.E.2d 789, disc. review denied, 347 N.C. 410, 494 S.E.2d 600 (1997).
Reviewing these cases together, I am of the opinion that they indicate if specific circumstances of work put the employee in a position making it more likely for them to be attacked rather than someone common to the neighborhood, then the resulting injury arises out of and in the course of employment. The evidence in the case sub judice indicates that patrons did not park identically to employees as those in Gallimore. In fact, plaintiff and other employees were required by their employer to park at the rear of the hotel in order for patrons to obtain the better parking spaces in front. Additionally, plaintiff was required to park in this dimly lit parking lot while reporting to work in the dark, early morning hours, and enter the rear of the building at the point where it had adjacent overgrown shrubs. These factors placed plaintiff in the proximity of her assailant, just as the factors enunciated from Wake put that employee in proximity of her co-employee assailant. Therefore, they contributed proximately to her subsequent attack. As recently stated by this Court, “[s]o long as ordered to perform by a superior, acts beneficial to the employer which result in injury to performing employees are within the ambit of the [Workers’ Compensation Act].” Hauser v. Advanced Plastiform, Inc., 133 N.C. App. 378, 384, 514 S.E.2d 545, 550 (1999). Plaintiff’s parking instructions by her superior were contributing proximate causes of her being assaulted and raped, both of which also occurred on her employer’s premises.
In view of the foregoing facts and liberally construing the Act in favor of coverage, see Parsons v. Pantry, Inc., 126 N.C. App. 540, 485 S.E.2d 867 (1997), I am of the opinion that the assault on plaintiff was a natural and probable consequence of plaintiff’s employment instead of a risk common to the neighborhood. Accordingly, plaintiff’s injuries on her employer’s premises while going to work are covered by the Act, see Bass, 258 N.C. 226, 128 S.E.2d 570, and therefore, her remedy is limited by it.
Plaintiff contends that the issue of her employer’s identity is a question of fact which was not determined by the trial court. *405Therefore, I would remand this issue for the trial court to make appropriate findings of fact and conclusions of law determining whether Shaner Operating is plaintiff’s actual employer, and thereupon enter an order in accordance with this opinion.