Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, Chapter 9, which discusses the general rule that Injuries arising out of risks or conditions personal to the claimant do not arise out of the employment unless the employment contributes to the risk or aggravates the injury, has been revised.
A recent Iowa decision, Benco Mfg. v. Albertsen, 2009 Iowa App. LEXIS 72 ((Iowa Ct. App. Feb 4, 2009), illustrates several of the issues involved in these sorts of cases. In Albertson, the employee had first walked to the employer's cafeteria to get a cappuccino and then walked toward the employer's restroom. After she opened the restroom door she fell backward, striking her head on a concrete wall screening the restroom from the work area. Acknowledging that the state did not follow the positional risk rule, the Iowa court nevertheless approved an award of benefits, finding that the employment conditions-specifically, (WCxKitz) the concrete wall-increased the severity of the employee's idiopathic injuries. The claim was, therefore, compensable. See Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, Ch. 9, § 9.01[2][] n.14.1
Decisions in these cases are extremely fact-dependent. Thus, in a Kentucky case, Vacuum Depositing, Inc. v. Dever, 2009 Ky. LEXIS 150 (June 25, 2009), the court determined that the employee's fall was caused by her two-inch high heels and clumsiness, not by a condition of the employment.
Similarly, in a Maryland case, Youngblud v. Fallston Supply Co., 180 Md. App. 389, 951 A.2d 118, writ denied, 406 Md. 114, 956 A.2d 203 (2008), the employee, an insulin-dependent diabetic, was denied workers' (WCxKitz) compensation benefits after he fell down the stairs at work. The court held that the fall was likely due to a hypoglycemic attack and was not brought about by a hazard of the employment.
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