Ohio: Claimant Required to Show Fall Was Not Due to Idiopathic Condition

Where an employee sustained a broken hip in a fall at work, with no clear reason for the fall, but where the employee’s medical record indicated that she suffered from various medical conditions, including diabetes mellitus type II, thyroid disease, and neuropathy in her leg, it was incumbent upon her to demonstrate that the fall was due to idiopathic causes. Accordingly, the trial court erred when it granted summary judgment in the claimant’s favor on the issue of workers’ compensation liability for her employer.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See White v. Buehrer, 2017-Ohio-8254, 2017 Ohio App. LEXIS 4643 (Oct. 20, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 7.04.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see