Recent Cases - Fall in Parking Lot Not Proved to be Work-Related

Workers' Compensation Appellate Commission

Fall in Parking Lot Not Proved to be Work-Related

In Anderson v Barbara Ann Karmanos Cancer Institute, 2008 ACO #8, the employee slipped and fell while alighting from her car in a parking lot after her lunch hour causing a back injury. Following a trial that lasted over five days and produced “[s]even hundred, plus, pages of a record and probably an equal amount of pages of medical records,” the Magistrate found the fall to be work-related and granted the employee an open award of benefits. While there were many issues in the case, the threshold issue presented was whether the employee adequately demonstrated the fall occurred in a parking lot owned, leased, or maintained by the employer so as to trigger the presumption that the injury was in the course of employment under MCL 418.301(3) and Simkins v General Motors Corp (After Remand), 453 Mich 703; 556 NW2d 839 (1996).

The Appellate Commission said the Magistrate incorrectly described the employee’s testimony as occurring while alighting from a vehicle she had parked in her “assigned parking spot.” (Emphasis added). The Commission said the employee never testified she was “assigned” a parking place by the employer or that she had parked in a lot assigned by the employer. Consequently, the award was reversed.