Court Opinion

ID: 9567587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:55:57.327579+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:41.851704
License: Public Domain

WYNN, Judge,
dissenting.
Under the Workers’ Compensation Act, an accidental cause of an employee’s injury will be inferred when the employee’s normal work routine is interrupted thereby introducing unusual conditions likely to result in unexpected consequences.1 In the instant case, the interruption of Plaintiff’s work routine required her to repeatedly engage in physical activity in a manner not required during her usual employment, thus exposing her to unforeseen outcomes. Because Plaintiff’s injury was therefore caused by an accident, I would affirm the Full Commission’s award entitling Plaintiff to workers’ compensation.
It is undisputed that Plaintiff injured her knee while climbing the stairs to reach her classroom. Notably, the Full Commission concluded that “the act of climbing the stairs as opposed to using the ele*627vator was an interruption of plaintiffs normal work routine and introduced new conditions to plaintiff’s employment.” Providing support for this conclusion were the Commission’s following findings of fact:
2. ... Prior to the incident giving rise to this claim, plaintiff’s normal method of accessing her second floor classroom was to use the school’s elevator... .
3. On November 3, 2006, the elevator at plaintiff’s school broke, and was then non-operational for a period of six (6) weeks. Therefore, during this period of maintenance, plaintiff had to break from her normal routine of using the elevator and instead, alter the manner in which she reached her second floor classroom by using the staircase.
Plaintiff testified that she had worked for Defendant in the same position for fifteen years and that, prior to December 4th, she normally used the elevator to reach her classroom on the second floor. Plaintiff’s testimony serves as competent evidence supporting the Full Commission’s finding that climbing the stairs constituted a departure from her normal method of reporting to her classroom. The Commission’s findings in turn support the conclusion that the act of climbing the stairs constituted an interruption of Plaintiff’s normal work routine.
However, the majority holds that in light of the fact that Plaintiff had been climbing the stairs for more than a month prior to her injury, the Commission erred by concluding that
[t]he period of time during which plaintiff had to break from her normal routine of using the elevator was insufficient for the act of climbing the stairs to become part of her normal work routine.
I recognize that this Court has found an interval of time significantly shorter than one month sufficient for changed employment circumstances to become part of an employee’s normal work routine. See Trudell v. Heating & Air Conditioning Co., 55 N.C. App. 89, 91, 284 S.E.2d 538, 540 (1981) (denying workers’ compensation because after working for “at least one week and possibly two weeks” under changed conditions, the conditions became part of plaintiff’s normal work routine). However, Trudell is distinguishable from the case at bar based on the nature of the change at issue.
In Trudell, the plaintiff worked for two and a half years doing air conditioning duct work which required him to operate in the crawl space beneath various buildings. Id. at 89-91, 284 S.E.2d at 539-40. *628After working for two weeks under a building with a crawl space that “was lower than any other under which plaintiff had previously worked,” plaintiff “began to feel pain in his lower back.” Id. at 89, 284 S.E.2d at 539. In affirming the Full Commission’s decision to deny compensation, this Court focused on the fact that the plaintiff had long performed similar work and there was no evidence that the type of work plaintiff was performing when injured required “unusual exertion or twisting” of any sort. Id. at 91, 284 S.E.2d at 540. Indeed, we stated that the plaintiff’s “location underneath the building was normal for air duct installation.” Id. Additionally, we noted that, “[a]t times [plaintiff] was required to lie on his back but there is no finding that that position was an unusually cramped one from which to work.” Id.
In contrast, Plaintiff in the instant case was required, as a result of the elevator malfunction, to engage in physical activity different than that to which she had become accustomed. The Full Commission found as fact that “the use of stairs introduced new conditions to plaintiff’s employment, i.e., carrying books up stairs as opposed to riding on the elevator as she had done for fifteen years prior to November 3, 2006.” Thus, the case sub judice presents a different set of factual circumstances than that before us in Trudell, where the plaintiff’s ordinary work activity was merely performed in a smaller space.
Nonetheless, Defendant further cites Gunter v. Dayco Corp., 317 N.C. 670, 346 S.E.2d 395 (1986), to support the contention that a month provided sufficient time for climbing stairs to become part of Plaintiff’s work routine. In Gunter, an employee was reassigned by his employer to a new position entailing different work duties. Id. at 671, 346 S.E.2d at 396. The Court held that the plaintiff’s new duties could not become part of his normal work routine until he had become proficient in, and accustomed to, his new job requirements. Id. at 675-76, 346 S.E.2d at 398 (awarding compensation where plaintiff worked in the new position for only “two days and a few hours” prior to sustaining the injury and had not become proficient in, nor accustomed to, the new job). However, Gunter did not address the issue of when an abnormal activity could become routine. Instead, the issue in that case was how long it took before a regularly performed activity which was part of the plaintiff’s normal duties could be considered part of his work routine. Importantly, in Gunter, the nature of the employee’s job changed such that new activities were expected to be “regularly” performed. Id. at 675, 346 S.E.2d at 398.
*629Contrastingly, in the case at bar, Plaintiff was performing a job wherein she had never been “regularly expected” to walk up the stairs. Indeed, her testimony established that her standard practice, observed for fifteen years, was to ride the elevator to the second floor. Furthermore, -witness testimony established that it was uncommon for the elevator to be broken for prolonged periods of time. The school’s Assistant Maintenance Director testified that the majority of the times when the elevator broke, service repairs were conducted on the same day as the reported malfunction. Thus, while Plaintiff was regularly expected to report to her second floor classroom, there is no evidence that she was regularly expected to use the stairs to do so.
In sum, I would hold that the factual findings of the Full Commission, establishing Plaintiff’s regular practice of using the elevator, supported its conclusion that climbing the stairs had not, by the time she was injured, become part of Plaintiff’s normal work routine. Accordingly, I would affirm the Full Commission’s determination that Plaintiff suffered her injury as the result of an accident arising out of and in the course of employment.2 See N.C. Gen. Stat. § 97-2(6) (2009).

. Gunter v. Dayco Corp., 317 N.C. 670, 673, 346 S.E.2d 395, 397 (1986).

. The Industrial Commission, by virtue of its experience and expertise in administering the Workers’ Compensation Act, deserves a degree of deference in its determinations as to what constitute interruptions of an employee’s work routine sufficient to infer an accidental cause of a plaintiff’s injury. Cf. County of Durham v. N.C. Dep’t of Env’t & Natural Resources, 131 N.C. App. 395, 396, 507 S.E.2d 310, 311 (1998) (“[E]ven when reviewing a case de novo, courts recognize the long-standing tradition of according deference to the agency’s interpretation” of a statute it administers.), disc. review denied, 350 N.C. 92, 528 S.E.2d 361 (1999). Indeed, in both Trudell and Gunter, the Court affirmed the decision of the Industrial Commission as to this issue.