Arkansas: Injuries Sustained in Leap From Burning Building Were Not Compensable

In Arkansas, injuries sustained by an employee at a time when employment services are not being performed are generally not compensable [see Ark. Code Ann. § 11-9-102(4)(B)(iii) (Supp. 2019)]. Construing that rule, a state appellate court affirmed a decision by the state’s Workers’ Compensation Commission that found injuries sustained by an employee who leaped from a second-story window to escape a fire at a horse-racing track did not arise out of and in the course of the employment. The employee resided in space above the stables. But the Commission found that arrangement was for his convenience; it was not required. He smelled smoke at 5:45 a.m., 15 minutes before he was to report for duties that day. He suffered a fractured vertebra when he jumped from the burning building. The Court said he was not a resident employee and he was not performing work at the time of the injury. Under the statute, his claim was not compensable.

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

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See Lopez v. James Divito Racing Stable, 2021 Ark. App. 257, 2021 Ark. App. LEXIS 270 (May 26, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 3.01, Digest, note 7.3.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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