Was Lightning Strike Inside Open Garage an Act of God or Exposure

June 22, 2010 By // by Director Leave a Comment

As our economy shifted during the past century and a half from one in which a substantial number of workers performed their labor outdoors in agricultural and other associated activities to an economy where work was more often concentrated in manufacturing facilities, offices, retail space, and other indoor settings, there has been an overall reduction in injuries associated with lightning, windstorms, freezing, sunstroke, and other acts of God.

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Nevertheless, the discussion contained in Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, Chapter 5, dealing with acts of God and exposure, is important in that it helps lay the foundation for three alternative tests of workers’ compensation causation: the increased risk test, the actual risk test, and the positional risk text. The chapter has been revised and updated. Recent cases follow historic patterns.

Thus, in one recent decision from North Carolina, Heatherly v. Hollingsworth Co., Inc., 189 N.C. App. 398; 658 S.E.2d 30 (2008), the state appellate court held that the N.C. Industrial Commission erred when it applied the positional risk test in determining the compensability of a claim involving an employee struck by lightning as he discussed the threatening weather situation with superiors. The employee had retreated to an unfinished garage that had no doors and was talking on a landline telephone. (workersxzcompxzkit) The North Carolina court indicated that the appropriate issue was whether the danger to which the employee was subjected was one that was incident to the employment, or was it merely one to which the public generally, in that neighborhood, were subjected. The case was remanded for such a determination. See Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, Ch. 5, § 5.01[4] n.9.1.

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