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Jefferson v. Pediatric Specialty Care10/26/2005
NOT DESIGNATED FOR PUBLICATION
On June 17, 2004, the Workers' Compensation Commission ("Commission") affirmed and adopted the decision of the administrative law judge ("ALJ") that appellant Robert E. Jefferson had failed to prove that he sustained a compensable back and neck injury on April 3, 2002. Appellant essentially argues that there was insufficient evidence to support the Commission's opinion. We disagree and affirm.
Appellant began working part-time as a van driver, janitor, and maintenance man for appellee Pediatric Specialty Care, Inc., in November 2001. His duties included loading children onto a van. Appellant alleged that on April 3, 2002, he slipped and fell on the van's steps as he was placing a child that he was carrying into her seat. Appellant filled out an injury report on April 16, 2002.
According to Hattie Love, appellant's supervisor, appellant did not report an injury to her on April 3, 2002. In fact, she testified that between April 3, 2002, and April 16, 2002, appellant did not mention that he was having any physical problems or that he needed to see a doctor. Love stated that appellant worked during that time and that she did not notice any difference in his work performance.
Angie Register, who worked as a receptionist for appellee at the time, testified that she remembered appellant coming inside from loading the children onto the van and asking her where he could find Love. Register noticed that appellant was holding his back, so she asked him what was wrong. According to Register, appellant told her he had hurt his back. Register testified that appellant talked to Love about his injury that day and that Love told him they would have to fill out an injury report. Register stated that appellant also had a conversation with Love the following day regarding his injury. She testified that appellant attempted to contact the administrator Gloria Gilliam several times but that Gilliam seemed to be avoiding him. Register recalled that, following his alleged injury, appellant acted as though he were hurting, but she acknowledged that appellant continued to come to work each day. Register testified that she was terminated in June 2002.
Appellant testified that on April 3, 2002, he was preparing to load the children onto the van and had been asked to put a wheelchair and various parts into the van before taking a particular child to the van. In describing the incident, appellant testified as follows:
I picked the child up and carried her out the side door. It was raining. I put the blanket over her head. I stepped up on the steps of the van and fixing to turn and put her in the seat, but I had her in the wrong arm. I usually have her in the left arm. I just carry her straight across to the seat. When I was turning to put her on the van, I knew that I had fell, I was falling. When I fell, I fell and hit the bottom of the van, part of my body hit the steps. And when I fell, I put the kid in my left arm. I reached back up on the van and grabbed the leg of the seat. It kind of like broke my fall, but I still fell out the van, but I didn't fall completely on the concrete and everything. So I kind of like, you know, pushed up, used some of my weight to push up to, you know, get my balance, get my footing and everything, and then I put the kid up on the van. I felt some burning in the low part of my back, and I felt some in the back of my neck. So I kind of like sat outside the van .... The lower part of my back hit the step. My upper back hit the - seems like the bottom of the van. My head hit something. I don't know whether it was - if it was the wheelchair or something. My head hit something pretty hard. All I know is some
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