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CLARDY v. MEDI-HOMES LTC SERV. LLC9/26/2001
Beverly Clardy appeals from a Workers' Compensation Commission ruling that injuries she sustained in a fall at work did not occur at a time when employment services were being performed because she had briefly walked across a driveway to speak to a co-worker while she was engaged in taking waste material to an outside storage area. The Commission consequently reversed the Administrative Law Judge's determination that Clardy had established that she sustained a compensable injury and denied benefits. The substantial-evidence standard of review requires that we affirm this case.
On July 28, 1998, Beverly Clardy, twenty-four years old and pregnant, was employed in the dietary area of Medi-Home Nursing Home. Her duties on that date included emptying waste from dirty dishes into "slop buckets" and taking the buckets to a rear outside storage area. As Clardy was returning from the storage area to retrieve a second bucket, she deviated approximately ten feet across a paved driveway adjoining a sidewalk to speak to an off-duty co-worker whose car was parked in the drive. Clardy testified that the area was slippery because mop water was routinely dumped there by employees, and that she slipped and fell down a grassy hill adjoining the driveway, fracturing her ankle. The co-worker, Jeremy Cox, testified that he was preparing to fish at a pond located behind the nursing home when he saw Clardy at the back door pushing a slop bucket, that they exchanged "hellos," and that when he looked up again Clardy had fallen.
The ALJ found that Clardy and Cox presented credible testimony and that Clardy's fall and resulting injuries occurred on the employer's premises, during her regular working hours, at a time when she was on duty and being paid, and while she was carrying out an assigned duty of transporting garbage and trash to a designated storage area. The ALJ further found that the digression of ten to twelve feet from the most direct route back to the kitchen to
speak to a co-worker was only a "de minimus deviation" and was not sufficient to take her outside the course and scope of her employment. The Commission reversed the ALJ, issuing majority, concurring, and dissenting opinions. The majority opinion found that Clardy had to get off the sidewalk and cross the pavement to get to the place she fell, characterizing this deviation as an "unscheduled and unauthorized break," and further stated that Clardy had "diverted from her job duties" in "social activities for personal pleasure" that did not further the interests of her employer when she sustained injuries. In its opinion, the Commission allowed that "if [Clardy] had merely said, `hello' on the way back inside," and "had not gone over to the car to chat," her fall would have been compensable. Clardy appeals from the finding that she was not performing employment services at the time of her injury and from the denial of benefits.
[1-4] On review, this court will affirm if the Commission's decision is supported by substantial evidence. Spencer v. Stone Container Corp., 72 Ark. App. 450, 38 S.W.3d 909 (2001). To determine if the decision is supported by substantial evidence, this Court views the evidence in the light most favorable to the Commission's findings and affirms if reasonable minds could have reached the same conclusion. Id. Where a claim is denied because the claimant has failed to show an entitlement to compensation by a preponderance of the evidence, the substantial-evidence standard of review requires the reviewing court to affirm the Commission if its opinion displays a substantial basis for the denial of relief. Hislip v. Helena/West Helena Sch., 74 Ark. App. 395, 48 S.W.3d 566 (2001); see also, Williams v. Arkansas Oa
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