Virginia: Injuries Sustained in Ducking Under Closing Garage Door Are Compensable

Evidence that an auto dealership employee’s movements were “unusual and awkward” as he attempted to duck under a garage door that was in the process of closing supported the Commission’s findings that he was entitled to workers’ compensation benefits, held a Virginia appellate court in a decision not designated for publication. Acknowledging that in Virginia, an employee generally may not recover benefits if his or her injury was the result of ordinary movement, such as walking, the court stressed that there was clear evidence here that the employee had attempted to reenter the dealership building before the garage door closed because he was responsible for turning out the lights and he did not have a key to the dealership’s premises. His risk of injury did not spring from conditions commonly found outside the workplace.

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).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis

See Magic City Ford Lincoln Isuzu Trucks v. Kerr, 2021 Va. App. LEXIS 160 (Aug. 31, 2021)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 3.04.

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

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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