Court Opinion

ID: 9573568
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 20:56:52.119849+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T12:41:54.072167
License: Public Domain

Miller, Judge,
dissenting.
I respectfully dissent. Since some evidence indicated that the lunch break was not scheduled, the Board’s factual finding to that effect cannot be reversed and the superior court’s affirmance on that basis was correct. Accordingly, the Workers’ Compensation Act applied to cover the injury.
The applicable law is set forth in Miles v. Brown Transport Corp., 163 Ga. App. 563, 564 (294 SE2d 734) (1982):
An injury to an employee occurring during working hours and on the employer’s premises ordinarily and presumptively will be considered as arising out of and in the course of employment and as such, the employee’s sole course of action is against the employer under the provisions of the Workers’ Compensation Act. An exception to coverage, however, has been carved out for injuries occurring during a regularly scheduled lunch break or rest break and at a time claimant is free to act as she chooses. Where these two facts concurrently exist, i.e., “regularly scheduled” and “freedom of action,” the injury does not arise out of and is not in the course of employment even though within working hours and on the employer’s premises. Freedom of action alone is not enough to remove the mantle of workers’ compensation from the employee nor absolve the employer from liability *797under the Workers’ Compensation Act. The employer must show both that the injury occurred during a scheduled break and the employee has full control of personal actions during the break time. In this case, . . . Brown produced evidence through its employees, including Ms. Miles, that the precise time she took her lunch break was dictated by the current status of the workload. Thus, Ms. Miles’[s] lunch break was not a “scheduled” one.
(Citations omitted; emphasis supplied.) Id.; accord Blair v. Ga. Baptist &c. Ministries, 189 Ga. App. 579, 582 (2) (377 SE2d 21) (1988).
Here some evidence showed that the precise time of the lunch break during the training course (regardless of what day in the course it was) was dictated by the status of the training. The training director testified:
Q. And do you take a lunch break at every training session?
A. Every day. Yes, we do.
Q. And do you take it at the same point during each training session?
A. Approximately at the same point. Usually we try to take them between 12:00 and 1:00, but sometimes if the class doesn’t have questions or things move a little bit faster, sometimes we’ll be out at 11:30 or so. But, yes, around the same time every day.
Q. Do you always take a lunch break after you discuss specific topics? Is there a specific breaking point for you to go to lunch?
A. After each topic we have breaks and then usually we take a break at a certain time, you know, depending — even sometimes some of the classes will go faster than others so if we don’t cover everything in the morning and if it’s noon and we still haven’t covered everything or there is questions about something, we’ll still go to lunch anyway. So it’s not specifically after every class. It’s more of a — at lunch time we go to lunch no matter what.
Q. At that first day of orientation generally when do you go to lunch? After — .
A. Usually on the first day I let them out about 11:30 because on the first day they have no idea what to expect and we — the prison no longer has a cafeteria inside so if they want to eat lunch they have to leave the facility somewhere. So I usually let them out about 11:30 which gives them an extra half hour so they can — on the first day so *798that they can know what to expect or if they have to go travel somewhere to get lunch.
Decided October 27, 2003
On cross-examination, however, he admitted:
Q. So there’s no real set — I mean it’s not so rigid as a specifically set lunch break? I mean there is a — as you’ve said, it’s some — between 11:30 and twelve o’clock? It can vary in between those times; is that correct?
A. Yes, sir. I mean we — we do definitely take a lunch break, but just because of the setting or the style of the class, it being a new employee orientation, sometimes there’s a lot of questions in the prison.
Q. Okay.
A. So depending on the class, it may not get out at a specific time.
The training director went on to admit that if there were questions or a topic which was not covered, the questions would be answered or the topic covered before going to lunch, which suggested that the lunch or break period would be cut short.
Although some evidence supported the majority’s determination that the lunch break was scheduled, some evidence also supported the Board’s factual finding that the lunch break here was not scheduled at a precise time but depended on the circumstances, and that therefore the “scheduled lunch break” exception to the Workers’ Compensation Act did not apply. We must remember that the law leans toward including employees and employers within the coverage of the Workers’ Compensation Act. OCGA § 34-9-23 (the Workers’ Compensation Act “shall be liberally construed ... for the purpose of bringing employers and employees within the provisions of this chapter and to provide protection for both”). Inasmuch as the Court of Appeals and the superior court are required to uphold the Board’s findings if there is any evidence to support them, the superior court here did not err in affirming the Board’s award. See Johnson v. Publix Supermarkets, 256 Ga. App. 540 (568 SE2d 827) (2002).
For these reasons, I would affirm the superior court’s judgment which affirmed the Board’s award.
I am authorized to state that Judge Barnes and Judge Adams join in this dissent.
*799Carlock, Copeland, Sender & Stair, Christopher A. Whitlock, Kelly M. Clark, for appellants.
Larry N. Hollington, for appellee.