Court Opinion

ID: 9745339
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 22:49:52.807902+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:59.173345
License: Public Domain

RATLIFF, Presiding Judge,
concurring.
In my opinion concurring in result in Lovely v. Cooper Industrial Products, Inc. (1981), Ind.App., 429 N.E.2d 274, 279-81, trans. denied, I expressed my displeasure with the definition of "accident" which has crept into Indiana workmen's compensation law. As I stated in that opinion, "in adopting a definition of 'accident' which requires a sudden, unexpected, or untoward event definitely traceable to a precise date, place, and time, we have departed from the underlying philosophy and legislative intent of the Indiana Workmen's Compensation Act." 429 N.E.2d at 279.
The purpose of workmen's compensation acts are to provide compensation to workers suffering from work-related injuries without meeting the liability requirements of tort law. The test is not one of fault flowing from a specific event; rather, it is one flowing from the relationship to the employment. 1 A. Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law § 2.10 (1978).
In my view, the proper focus in determining eligibility for workmen's compensation benefits should be upon an unexpected or untoward result arising out of and in the course of the employment rather than upon whether there was an unexpected, untoward event. It has been said that the requirement of unusual exertion or of an unexpected event makes it possible for a claimant who suffers an injury caused by his work to be denied compensation and that, therefore, the accident requirement should require only that an injury be unexpected. 18 Val.U.L.Rev. 558-59 (1979). I believe Justice DeBruler spoke for the unexpected result definition of accident in his dissenting opinion in Calhoun v. Hillenbrand Industries, Inc. (1978), 269 Ind. 507, 381 N.E.2d 1242 (DeBruler and Hunter, J.J., dissenting).
To the extent that we have departed from the unexpected result theory of accident and insist upon the happening of an unexpected event as a prerequisite to finding accidental injury, we have departed from the original intent and purpose of the Workmen's Compensation Act. We should reexamine our position in the light of the obvious intent of the act.
Nevertheless, despite my personal disagreement expressed herein and in my concurring opinion in Lovely, I yield to the majority in their interpretation of the current state of Indiana law. I recognize the applicability of stare decisis and the obligation of this court to follow the decisions of our supreme court. The majority opinion correctly reflects the decisions of our supreme court, and I must concur in the decision in this case. Yet, I continue to hope that someday there will be a recognition of the error in the unexpected event definition and a return to the unexpected result theory in order to fulfill the intent of the workmen's compensation act.