Arkansas: No Compensation Where Fall is Due to Idiopathic Cause

The Supreme Court of Arkansas affirmed a finding by the state’s Commission that a grocery store worker had not shown that her brain injury arose out of and in the course of her employment where the worker claimed she sustained an unexplained, compensable fall and the Commission found instead that her injury was the result of an idiopathic condition. It was undisputed that the worker fell while working at the Kroger store. Claimant claimed she had no memory of the incident, yet also contended she slipped while carrying a tray of shrimp from the cooler. Medical evidence indicated claimant had a history of arrhythmia and had an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) device implanted several years before the incident in question. Claimant’s treating physician acknowledged that arrhythmia can cause a person's blood pressure to drop precipitously, resulting in fainting. The ICD did not show such an incident, but the physician testified that did not record all syncope incidents. The appellate court indicated there was sufficient evidence to support the Commission’s findings (affirmed by the court of appeals) that claimant had failed to prove her case.

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 Askins v. Kroger, 2018 Ark. 23, 2018 Ark. LEXIS 22 (Jan. 25, 2018)

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

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