Appeals court reverses, orders fall injury compensable

by Louise Esola

The injuries suffered by a call center employee who slipped and fell backward on an icy curb leading from the parking lot to the building where she worked in Salem, Oregon, are compensable, an appeals court in Oregon ruled Wednesday.

The latest ruling in In the Matter of the Compensation of Ashley Bruntz-Ferguson, filed in the Court of Appeals of Oregon in Salem, Oregon, reverses and remands an order of the state Workers’ Compensation Board affirming an order of an administrative law judge that found that the injury fell under the “coming and going rule” that states such injuries are not within the course and scope of employer, and are thus not compensable under state workers compensation law.

However, the appeals court concluded that because the employer leases its office space and common areas such as parking spaces, and that under the terms of the lease, the employer pays additional rent for its share of the maintenance of the area and that it can request that landlord make repairs if necessary, that the employer “had sufficient control over the area of injury,” making the injury compensable.

The court also ruled further that because snow and ice in the common area were a risk “to which the environment exposed claimant” the injury also fell within her employment and that the “conclusion otherwise was without substantial reason.”