Issue link: http://www.e-digitaleditions.com/i/83215
Under this rule, the Commission will deny claims for injuries arising out of simple acts of walking, standing, squatting, bending, turning, or reaching. Without any other contributing environmental factors, these activities are not risks of the employment. Likewise, falls down stairs are not compensable, if there was no added risk of the employment that caused the fall or defect in the stairs. Such injuries are compensable only if combined with a risk of the employment, such as having to work in an awkward position, falls caused by obscured vision when carrying a work-related object such as a box, accidents resulting from significant work-related exertion, or if a defect in the work place contributed to the accident. 1. Unexplained Accidents The claimant has the burden of proving that his injury arose out of the employment. For this reason, an unexplained accident is not compensable because the critical link between the employment and the accident cannot be made. An accident may be unexplained either because the claimant does not know why the accident occurred or because he is unable to recall the accident. However, the Commission can infer that a compensable injury occurred from circumstantial evidence. In order to do so, the facts must lead the Commission to logically conclude how the accident happened. It is not enough that the facts point to several possible causes, any of which could be considered compensable. The circumstances must explain the accident. 2. Death Presumption Functioning as an exception to the unexplained accident rule, the death presumption creates a presumption that a death arose out of and in the course of the employment in certain factual scenarios. To qualify for the presumption, the evidence must show that: a) b) c) d) An employee is found dead; As the result of an accident; At his place of work or nearby, where his duties may have called him during the hours of his work; and There is no evidence offered to show what caused the death or to show that he was not engaged in his employer's business at the time.