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Bason v. Kraft Food Service9/19/2000
orth Carolina Industrial Commission concluded Plaintiff's claim was not compensable under the North Carolina Workers' Compensation Act. Plaintiff appealed the opinion and award of the deputy commissioner to the Full Commission.
In an opinion and award filed on 2 July 1999, the Full Commission entered findings of fact consistent with the facts stated above, including the following pertinent findings of fact:
4. . . . ecedent was not scheduled to work on February 22, 1994, but was "on call.". . . This was a normal activity and something that . . . ecedent had done in a regular manner during his many years of service to . . . [Defendant].
5. There was nothing unusual about the route, the hours, or the amount or type of deliveries required of . . . ecedent on [the day of his death].
7. . . . The cause of . . . ecedent's death was cardiac arrhythmia, which was a sudden, fatal irregular heart beat, precipitated by the severe ischemic heart disease. . . .
8. The autopsy revealed no evidence of trauma . . . .
The Full Commission then made the following pertinent conclusions of law:
2. Where circumstances bearing on work- relatedness are unknown and where the death occurs within the course of employment, plaintiff should be able to rely on a presumption that death was work-related and therefore compensable, whether the medical reason for death is known or unknown. Melton v. City of Rocky Mount, 118 N.C. App. 249, 254-255 (1995), citing Pickrell v. Motor Convoy, Inc., 322 N.C. 363, 370 (1988). This presumption of compensability then requires the defendant to come forward with some evidence that the death occurred as a result of a non-compensable cause. Otherwise, the plaintiff prevails. Pickrell, 322 N.C. at 371. In the presence of sufficient competent evidence that the death was not compensable, the presumption is successfully rebutted. The Industrial Commission should then find the facts based on all the evidence adduced, drawing such reasonable inferences from the competent, credible, and convincing evidence as may be permissible, the burden of persuasion remaining with the plaintiff. Id.
3. In the case at hand, . . . efendant ha successfully rebutted the presumption of compensability by presenting competent, credible, and convincing evidence that the cause of . . . ecedent's death was severe heart disease which caused a fatal irregular heartbeat. Id. There was no convincing evidence of any unusual or extraordinary exertion by . . . ecedent. See Bellamy v. Morace Stevedoring Co., 258 N.C. 327 (1962). According to the facts adduced from the evidence and reasonable inferences drawn therefrom, . . . ecedent, thus, did not sustain an injury by accident arising out of his employment with . . . [Defendant]. N.C. Gen. Stat. Section 97-2(6).
The Full Commission, therefore, denied Plaintiff's claim.
The dispositive issue is whether Defendant rebutted the presumption, under Pickrell v. Motor Convoy, Inc., 322 N.C. 363, 368 S.E.2d 582 (1988), that Decedent sustained an injury by accident and, if so, whether Plaintiff met her burden of proving Decedent sustained an injury by accident.
Plaintiff argues Defendant did not present sufficient evidence to rebut the presumption under Pickrell that Decedent sustained an injury by accident. We disagree.
Appellate review of a decision of the Full Commission is limited to whether the record contains competent evidence to support the Full Commission's findings of fact, and whether the findings of fact support the Full Commission's conclusions of law. Hemric v. Manufacturing Co., 54 N.C. App. 314, 316, 283 S.E.2d 436, 437-38
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