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WORKERS COMP - Teacher had work related injury in activity from school: Clark County Board of Education v. Audeen Jacobs; Hon. Sheila C.Lowther, CALJ; Workers? Compensation Board (SC 2/19/2009)

By Michael Stevens

Clark County Board of Education v. Audeen Jacobs; Hon. Sheila C.Lowther, CALJ; Workers? Compensation Board
2008-SC-000222-WC 2/19/2008
All sitting; all concur.  AFFIRMED.

Claimant was employed as a high school teacher and served as sponsor of the school?s chapter of the Beta Club?a national honor student organization. While accompanying the club to a convention in Louisville, claimant fell and fractured her shoulder in four places. The school board asserted the injury was not work-related and denied the claim. The ALJ determined the injury was work-related, noting claimant attended the convention with her principal?s approval and that she was not required to take sick or vacation time to do so. Further, the ALJ found that the club provided a service to claimant?s employer by advancing the school?s responsibility to educate students and prepare them for adult life. In affirming, the Supreme Court restated the test from Spurgeon for determining if an activity arises in the course of employment: 1) that an employer must exercise a sufficient degree of compulsion to permit a reasonable finding that it brought the disputed activity within the scope of the employment; and 2) that evidence of a specific employer benefit may bolster evidence of compulsion.

Full post as published by Kentucky Cases on September 27, 2009 (boomark / email).