LaDonna Johnson v OATs
Inj. No. 23-047500
Release Date: Jan 7, 2025
The Commission in a 2-1 decision reverses an award of approximately $70,000 in benefits, and finds the claimant van driver failed to prove injury by accident in course and scope of her employment based on an equal exposure defense when claimant sustained injuries in her own home to retrieve work-related supplies and slipped in her own kitchen and claims walking outside in water to inspect the van made her shoes wet and slippery.
ALJ Elmer awarded benefits and found a work related risk caused claimant to be outside in the rain, standing in wet grass, that lead her to fall. She argued, among other factors, that driving her private car does not require her to step in grass, and that in private life she does not have to be exposed to the rain and that cleaning the van was a benefit to the employer.
