The
Commission held claimant, who injured her knee while exiting a chair in
an attempt to prevent a resident of defendant’s health care facility
from leaving a designated smoking area, sustained an injury arising out
of and in the course of her employment.
Claimant, an
employee at defendant’s health care facility alleged she injured her
left knee while getting out of a chair in an attempt to prevent a
resident from leaving a designated smoking area. Specifically, claimant
stated she observed a resident smoking a cigarette in the break room of
the facility. Because the resident needed to be observed while
smoking, claimant went into the break room and sat down. The
resident then unexpectedly started to walk out of the break room while
still smoking. To prevent him from going into a nonsmoking area,
claimant attempted to exit her chair to go after the resident.
Claimant stated she made this maneuver quickly so she could reach the
resident as soon as possible. While getting out of the chair, claimant
twisted her left knee.
The
arbitrator found claimant sustained an accidental injury arising out of
and in the course of her employment. In so holding, the arbitrator
rejected defendant’s contention claimant was injured while turning her
chair, not while getting up to go after a patient. The arbitrator
noted claimant listed a witness on her report of injury but defendant
failed to call this witness to testify.
