On June 5, 2019, the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal in Lafayette handed down a ruling that is very instructive to injured workers and their attorneys. In order to be eligible for workers’ compensation benefits under Louisiana law, a claimant must allege injury due to an “accident.” An accident is defined, per Louisiana Revised Statute 23:1021, as “an unexpected or unforeseen actual, identifiable, precipitous event happening suddenly or violently, with or without human fault, and directly producing at the time objective findings of an injury which is more than simply a gradual deterioration or progressive degeneration.”

The question before the court of appeal was whether the claimant suffered a personal injury from an identifiable accident during the course and scope of his employment. The Workers’ Compensation Judge found that summary judgment should be granted for the employer because the claimant was alleging what was in essence “wear and tear” or a repetitive motion injury not covered by the Worker’s Compensation Act.

Despite the claimant’s deposition testimony regarding gradual wear and tear, the court of appeal found that there was enough evidence based on affidavits to survive summary judgment and thus the decision below should be reversed. Although the claimant could not point to a particular incident as evidence of an “accident,” the affidavits indicated that he began experiencing debilitating pain during strenuous work involved at his place of employment. Although Mr. Espree could not point to a particular “incident” as evidence of an accident, his and his brother’s affidavits both indicate that he began experiencing debilitating pain when he was physically ramming a forty to fifty-pound piece of iron into the entry slot of an 800 pound piece of pipe. In other words, the claimant could point to a rather specific place and time period where he alleged the injury occurred.

The decision is Espree v. Vanoil Completion Systems, Docket No. 18-932 in the Louisiana Third Circuit Court of Appeal.