"Equal exposure" brews frustration for employees: court filters personal comfort doctrine through workers' compensation amendments.

• Author: Hance, Breanna
• Position: Case note

Johme v. St. John's Mercy Healthcare, 366 S.W.3d 504 (Mo. 2012) (en banc).

1. INTRODUCTION

   In 2005, the Missouri General Assembly comprehensively reformed the state's workers' compensation system. (1) To achieve reform, the legislature enacted revisions to nearly thirty sections of Missouri's workers' compensation statute. (2) Among other significant amendments was a revision to Missouri Revised Statutes section 287.020.3(2), (3) which defines whether an injury is deemed to "arise out of and in the course of employment" thereby qualifying for workers' compensation. (4) The statute, which previously required an employee to show that his or her employment was a substantial factor in causing the injury, now requires an employee to show that the accident was the prevailing factor in causing the injury. (5) By limiting the scope of section 287.020.3(2), the legislature called into question many of the common law doctrines previously employed by judges to determine whether an injury was compensable under workers' compensation. (6)

   In a recent case, Johme v. St. John's Mercy Healthcare, (7) the Supreme Court of Missouri greatly narrowed the judicially-created personal comfort doctrine. (8) The doctrine states that an employee's acts tending to his or her personal comfort are incidental to employment and thereby covered under workers' compensation. (9) In Johme, the plaintiff was injured at work while making coffee in the office kitchen. (10) 11 Although she was ministering to a personal comfort, the court reversed the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission's award of workers' compensation benefits. (11) Addressing the "arising out of and in the course of employment" requirement, the court held that in order to recover under workers' compensation, an employee must show the injury was caused by a work-related risk that the employee was not equally exposed to outside of employment. (12)

   This Note will examine the status of the "arising out of and in the course of employment" requirement after Johme. Part II begins with an analysis of the facts and holding of Johme. Next, Part III synthesizes the background of workers' compensation laws in Missouri, including the establishment of the workers' compensation system, the development of the personal comfort doctrine, the 2005 statutory revisions, and two post-2005 cases interpreting the changes. Part IV outlines the court's rationale in deciding Johme. Finally, Part V discusses the impact of Johme on the "arising out of and in the course of employment" requirement. This Note argues that: (1) Johme abrogated the use of the personal comfort doctrine to satisfy the "arising out of and in the course of employment" requirement, consistent with the 2005 statutory revisions; (13) (2) Johme clarified the standard of proof for future claimants to show an injury arose out of and in the course of employment; (14) and (3) the court's rule is susceptible to criticisms for departing from the original goals of workers' compensation. (15)

2. FACTS AND HOLDING

   Sandy Johme worked as a billing representative for St. John's Mercy Healthcare when the accident that gave rise to her workers' compensation claim took place. (16) Johme's duties as a billing representative took place in an office building and included "desk work," such as typing charges into a computer. (17) Located roughly thirty steps away from Johme's desk was an office kitchen, where St. John's provided a coffee station for use by all employees. (18)

   On the morning of June 23, 2008, Johme went to the kitchen to fill up her coffee. (19) Because she took the last cup of coffee from the pot, she began brewing a new pot, as was the customary practice in the office. (20) As she finished making the coffee, Johme "turned and then went on the side of her shoe and went down." (21) At the time of the accident, Johme was wearing sandals "with a thick heel and a flat bottom, with a one-inch thick sole." (22) Johme pulled herself up using a counter and realized she could not walk. (23) A coworker came into the kitchen and retrieved Johme's manager. (24) Johme was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she was treated for a fractured pelvis. (25)

   Following the fall, Johme and her manager completed an injury report. (26) Johme reported that she "was standing at [the] coffee pot [and] when [she] turned to walk back to [her] desk, [she] felt [her] shoe suddenly on the floor." (27) Johme's manager stated in the report that Johme was "making coffee in the kitchen, turned to put [coffee] grounds in [the] trash, twisted [her] ankle and fell off [her] shoe, fell backwards and landed on [the] floor." (28) Emergency room records indicate "Johme reported [tripping] at work because of the shoes she was wearing." (29) At the time of the fall, the kitchen's floor was not irregular or hazardous. (30)

   Johme filed a claim for benefits under workers' compensation. (31) Missouri Revised Statutes section 287.120 provides that:

   Every employer subject to the provisions of this chapter shall be liable, irrespective of negligence, to furnish compensation under the provisions of this chapter for personal injury or death of the employee by accident arising out of and in the course of the employee's employment. Any employee of such employer shall not be liable for any injury or death for which compensation is recoverable under this chapter and every employer and employees of such employer shall be released from all other liability whatsoever, whether to the employee or any other person[.] (32) The definitions contained in section 287.020 explain:

   (2) An injury shall be deemed to arise out of and in the course of the employment only if:

   (a) It is reasonably apparent, upon consideration of all the circumstances, that the accident is the prevailing factor in causing the injury; and

   (b) It does not come from a hazard or risk unrelated to the employment to which workers would have been equally exposed outside of and unrelated to the employment in normal nonemployment life. (33)

   Johme testified that she did not make coffee at home. (34) The administrative law judge (ALJ) denied Johme's claim for benefits, finding: (1) she was not performing work duties at the time she fell, and (2) she was "equally exposed to the same hazard or risk" of "just [falling]" in her normal, nonemployment life. (35)

   The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (Commission) reversed the ALJ's denial of benefits. (36) The Commission's decision first discussed the history of workers' compensation and the effect of the legislature's 2005 amendments to the workers' compensation statutes. Specifically, the Commission noted that revised section 287.020.3(2) abrogates prior case law interpretations of the phrase "arising out of and in the course of employment," (37) 38 citing the legislature's enactment of section 287.020.10, which states:

   In applying the provisions of this chapter, it is the intent of the legislature to reject and abrogate earlier case law interpretations on the meaning of or definition of "accident", "occupational disease", "arising out of', and "in the course of the employment" to include, but not be limited to, holdings in: Bennett v. Columbia Health Care and Rehabilitation, 80 S.W.3d 524 (Mo. App. W.D. 2002); Kasl v. Bristol Care, Inc., 984 S.W.2d 852 (Mo. banc 1999); and Drewes v. TWA, 984 S.W.2d 512 (Mo. banc 1999) and all cases citing, interpreting, applying, or following those cases. (39) Using the Pile test, (40) the Commission determined Johme's claim was compensable under workers' compensation by applying the personal comfort doctrine to the "arising out of and in the course of employment" standards of section 287.020.3(2). (41) The Commission held that making coffee was "incidental to and related to" Johme's employment under the personal comfort doctrine, and therefore it was unnecessary to proceed to part two of the Pile analysis to determine whether she would have been "equally exposed" to the risk outside of her employment. (42) The Commission awarded Johme disability payments and past medical expenses. (43)

   St. John's appealed the Commission's decision, arguing the conclusion was not based on sufficient, competent evidence to satisfy the "arising out of and in the course of employment" requirement of section 287.020.3(2). (44) The Missouri Court of Appeals, Eastern District proposed reversing the award of compensation, but instead transferred the case (post opinion) to the Supreme Court of Missouri "because of the general interest of this question and the failure to find Pile persuasive." (45)

   Using a de novo standard of review, the Supreme Court of Missouri held that Johme's fall while making coffee in the office kitchen was not compensable under the Missouri workers' compensation statutes because it was not an injury that "arose out of and in the course of employment" under section 287.020.3(2). (46) The court reasoned that (1) the "cause of her injury turning and twisting her ankle and falling off her shoe--[did not have] a causal connection to her work activity other than the fact that it occurred in her office's kitchen while she was making coffee," and (2) Johme presented insufficient evidence to show she was subject to a lesser risk of this type of injury in her normal, non-employment life. (47)

3. LEGAL BACKGROUND

   Workers' compensation was established as a bargain between employers and employees and was codified into Missouri statutory law nearly a century ago. (48) The workers' compensation statutes (49) provide employees with compensation for "personal injury or death of the employee by accident arising out of and in the course of the employee's employment." (50) Prior to 2005, courts applied common law doctrines such as the "personal comfort doctrine" to claims to determine whether an injury "arose out of and in the course of employment." (51) In 2005, the Missouri General Assembly revised multiple sections of the workers' compensation chapter...