Court Opinion

ID: 9570618
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:24:41.912527+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:12:09.637249
License: Public Domain

BAKES, Justice,
concurring in part and dissenting.
I concur with that portion of the majority opinion which holds that the commission, in its Conclusion of Law No. I, misconstrued the court’s holding in Wynn v. J.R. Simplot Company, 105 Idaho 102, 666 P.2d 629 (1983). In that Conclusion of Law the commission held, relying on our decision in the Wynn case, that “the Supreme Court has retained the requirement that in order to constitute an accident the claimant must show that he suffered his injury at a particular time and at a particular place.” What the court held in Wynn, was that the claimant in that case had actually shown that he had had an accident at a particular time and a particular place, not that he was required to show that he had had an accident at a particular time and a particular place. Accordingly, I agree with the majority that to that extent the commission misperceived the holding in Wynn.
However, that does not necessarily require the reversal in this ease. The claimant had argued in this case that the evidence established that she had suffered an accident, reasonably located as to its occurrence and was therefore entitled to benefits based on the Wynn case. The commission, in its Conclusion of Law No. I acknowledged that claimant was arguing that “she suffered an accident, reasonably located as to its occurrence and is therefore entitled to the receipt of Worker’s Compensation benefits.” Nevertheless, the commission concluded that “the claimant’s injury occurred gradually over a period of time and was not caused by an accident as defined by § 72-102(14). Idaho Code.” Thus, even though the commission may have misconstrued the holding in the Wynn case, the foregoing finding (which was actually denoted as a conclusion of law) that claimant's injury occurred gradually over a period of time and was not caused by an accident, was not affected by the misinterpretation of the holding in the Wynn case.
When the legislature changed the wording of the statute from “definitely” to “reasonably”1 it did not change the definition of accident from “an unexpected, undesigned and unlooked for mishap, or untoward event,” but merely gave some latitude in the claimant’s requirement to give notice as to when and where the accident occurred. Thus a claimant would not have to establish the exact day and precise location that his accident occurred in order to be entitled to benefits if he could establish the time and place of the accident within reasonable parameters. However, an accident as defined in the statute as amended still requires “an unexpected, undesigned and unlooked for mishap, or untoward event.” The change of the word “definitely” to “reasonably” did not mean that an accident can now constitute an accumulation of stressful but regular employment activities stretched out over a long period of time. An accident still must be a “mishap” or an “event.”
Accordingly, even though the commission may have misconstrued the Wynn case to require a claimant, if he had had an accident, to identify “a particular, time and ... particular place that the accident occurred,” nevertheless the commission found as a matter of fact that claimants condition occurred gradually over a period of time and was not caused by an accident. That finding is supported by substantial competent evidence in the record, and accordingly I would affirm the order of the Industrial Commission. While the commis*994sion erred in its interpretation of the Wynn case, that err did not effect the commission’s ultimate finding that the claimants back problem “was not caused by an accident.”
The order of the commission should be affirmed.

. In 1971 the legislature substituted the word "reasonably” for the word “definitely":
“Accident” means an unexpected, undesigned and unlooked for mishap, or untoward event, connected with the industry in which it occurs, and which can be reasonably located as to time when and place where it occurred, causing any injury.
I.C. § 72-102(14)(b) (1971-83) (emphasis added).