Rockford hospital worker can't secure bnenefits for wipeout in hallway
The Illinois Workers' Compensation Commisison held that a worker's injuries sustained when she fell while wlaking down a hallway did not arise out of her employment. The worker failed to prove that her fall was caused by a substance on the floor, a defect, or any other possible explanation.
Case name: Goolsbey v. Rockford Memorial Hosptial, 17 ILWCLB 224 (Ill.W.C.Comm.2009)
Goolsby, a hospital employee, testified that she was walking down a hallway shen she suddenly fell. Two visitors were walking in front of her at the time and came back to assist her. Goolsby testified that it felt like her foot caught on something. She does not know which foot got sutck. She testified that she was not rushing at the time of the incident, she did not know what caused her to fall, and she did not notice anything that would have caused her to fall.
A couple of weeks after the incident she went back to look at the area to determine what could have caused the incident. She testified that there appeared to be dimpling of the tile in the area where she fell and believed this could have caused her accident. The hallway was open to the general public. A nurse testifed that she came to assist Goolsby immediately after the fall and did not see any subtance on the floor or defect in the surface of the floor.
A maintenance superviosr testifed that the floor had not been waxed, finished or burnished at any time around the date of the accident. As Goolsby failed to prove she sustained injuries arising out of and in the course of her employment, the arbitrator denied benefits. The Commission modified the decision to find the accident occurred in the course of employment, and otherwise affirmed and adopted.
Goolsby admitted there was no slippery substance on the floor that caused her to fall. Although she was carrying a beeper and few sheets of paper, she admitted that carrying these items did not cause her accident. no witness tetified to a problem or defect with the floor. According to a security officer, Goolsby stated that she simply lost her footing. Goolsby's testimony that she returned to the accident scene a couple of weeks after the fall to figure out what could have happened constitutes mere speculation and conjecture. Accordingly, Goolsby failed to meet her burden of proving the injury arose out of her employment.
