Court Opinion

ID: 9654673
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 18:46:47.341361+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:13:12.407874
License: Public Domain

BROCK, Justice,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent from the decision and the opinion of the majority in this case. In my opinion, the injuries suffered by the plaintiff-employee “arose out of and in the course of his employment” as those words have been interpreted and applied in our most recent decisions. Hudson v. Thurston Motor Lines, Inc., Tenn., 583 S.W.2d 597 (1979); Bell v. Kelso Oil Co., Tenn., 597 S.W.2d 731 (1980). In the Bell case we observed:
“Generally, an injury arises out of and in the course of the employment if it has a rational causal connection to the work and occurs while the employee is engaged in the duties of his employment; and, any reasonable doubt as to whether an injury ‘arose out of the employment’ is to be resolved in favor of the employee. (Citations omitted) ...
We have said that an injury arises out of the employment ‘when there is apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration of all of the circumstances, a causal connection between the conditions under which the work [was] required to be performed and the resulting injury.’ T.J. Moss Tie Co. v. Rollins, 191 Tenn. 577, 235 S.W.2d 585 (1951).
“Injuries that result from a willful assault upon an employee represent one of the most difficult eases for determination whether such injuries arise out of and in the course of the employment. We recently had occasion to investigate this problem in Hudson v. Thurston Motor Lines, Inc., Tenn., 583 S.W.2d 597 (1979). Mr. Justice Fones, writing for the Court, reviewed the decisions of this Court involving injuries resulting from assaults upon employees. He summarized the state of the law with respect to this problem as follows:
“The issue of whether the accident arose out of the employment is a more difficult question. The standards that this Court has adhered to, throughout the history of the workmen’s compensation litigation, although expressed in widely-varying language, center upon a showing of (1) a causal connection between the employment and the injury or (2) a risk incidental to or peculiar to the employment.’ ...” 597 S.W.2d at 734.
Applying the principles from the Hudson and Bell cases, supra, to the facts of this case I can only conclude that the assault and injury to the plaintiff had a rational causal connection to his work and occurred *934while he was engaged in the performance of his duties. Accordingly, I would hold that the trial court erred in dismissing the complaint. Simply to say that the fight between Brimhall and Ray was “purely personal in nature” and that “the encounter was a personal matter between Brim-hall and Ray” and to note that the hand cleaner was the personal property of the plaintiff Brimhall rather than of his employer does not furnish any basis for denying liability in this case. Fights of this kind are always personal in nature but sometimes, as here and in the Bell and other cases cited therein, they have a rational causal connection to the work and occur while the employee is engaged in the performance of his duties. Accordingly, I would reverse and remand this case to the trial court for a determination of the benefits to which the plaintiff is entitled under the worker’s compensation laws.