Watch out for “Simple Acts”

In January of this year, the Commission issued an opinion that illustrates the importance of ensuring an injured worker’s injury occurs while engaged in an activity that is indeed a risk common to the neighborhood.

In this case, a school bus driver was driving his bus route, which included a stop at a recreational center. When he arrived at the recreational center, the driver parked and exited his bus and began walking towards the building to use the bathroom. As he was walking, he felt a severe pain in his left knee and foot and was thereafter unable to walk. The driver filed a claim for benefits seeking medical benefits and total temporary disability benefits.

The Commission held that this injury was not compensable under the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Act. In doing so, the Commission further solidified precedent that holds that simple acts, such as bending, reaching, or turning without any work-related exertion or awkward contributing factors, are not considered to be risks of one’s employment.

In Virginia, we apply the “Simple Acts” doctrine when trying to determine whether an injury is work-related. In doing so, we consider what the claimant was doing at the time of the injury. Was he engaged in a job-related activity which creates an actual risk of some injury, or was he simply walking, bending, reaching, etc., without any work-related exertion? This is in contrast to the “Positional Risk” doctrine employed in some other jurisdictions. In these other jurisdictions, an injury is considered work-related if it occurred while the employee was at a place he was required to be by his job, even if the injury occurred absent any work-related exertion.

Here, the school bus driver was walking to the bathroom, and he was not being influenced by any work-related stressors that add an actual risk of injury. Therefore, in Virginia, this is not a compensable injury because he was engaged in an ordinary act. However, in a jurisdiction that employs the positional risk analysis, the holding may be different. Under those rules, the claimant only needs to be in a place he is expected to be for his job, and arguably, here, he is. He was only at the recreational center because his bus route took him there, and it does not matter that he was simply walking without the influence of work-related stressors. It matters only that he was where he was expected to be. Under the positional risk framework, this injury may have been compensable.

This case is an important reminder that Virginia has not adopted the “Positional Risk” doctrine and instead applies the “Simple Acts” doctrine. The result is that in Virginia, the scope of compensable injures which occur while at work is more narrow. When evaluating claims, such as this one, the savvy adjuster or attorney will keep in mind that injuries resulting from simple acts are not compensable in Virginia.

Should you have any questions about the issues discussed here or other legal issues, please do not hesitate to contact the lawyers at Ford Richardson.

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