Carpenter Can't build Workplace Assault Case out of Friend's Hug

Lester, PA (WorkersCompensation.com) – Coworkers who witnessed an alleged workplace injury are in an especially strong position to help make, or break, a claimant’s case.  

A carpenter’s description of a workplace “assault” didn’t add up once a coworker, and the alleged perpetrator himself, explained what happened in Stanis v. Workers’ Compensation Appeal Board, No. 578 C.D. 2020 (Pa. Commw. Ct. 05/23/22). 

The carpenter claimed that on Oct. 22, 2015, when he was signing out from work, a co-worked assaulted him. He claimed the coworker grabbed from behind, lifted him off the ground, and violently tossed him back and forth, side to side, at a high rate of speed, for at least 20 seconds, injuring his neck, lower back, and abdomen.  

The carpenter did not report the incident to the company that day. He also did not report the alleged assault to police.  

The carpenter filed a workers’ compensation claim in about two months later. However, he continued to work, without restrictions, until January 2016.  

A worker’s compensation judge denied the carpenter’s claim, concluding that he failed to demonstrate that he was injured at work. The workers’ compensation board affirmed, and the carpenter appealed. 

On appeal, the court explained that to succeed on his claim, the employee had to show that he sustained an injury in the course of employment and that the injury was causally related to his work. 

The court noted that the workers’ compensation judge relied partly on the testimony of a coworker who said there was no assault. There was, however, a hug from behind, according to that individual. The coworker also testified that the hug was to thank the carpenter for a gift and opined that the contact may have hurt the carpenter’s pride in some way. However, the hug, he said, was neither violent, lengthy, nor sufficiently dramatic to lift the employee off his feet and cause him to whip from side to side, as the carpenter claimed. 

That testimony, the court noted, largely matched up with the testimony of the alleged hugger himself, who said the hug was to thank his friend for a t-shirt, and that it lasted no more than a few seconds. 

The court observed that the workers’ compensation judge rejected a doctor’s testimony on the carpenter’s behalf. “[The doctor] did not see Claimant until almost one year after his alleged violent assault/work injury and he relies on Claimant's statements to him of what transpired at work to form his opinions,” the court wrote. Further, during the initial treatment the carpenter sought from another doctor shortly after the incident, he never mentioned an assault. 

The workers’ compensation judge, the court added, also rejected the carpenter’s testimony, given its inconsistency with the evidence. The judge also found the carpenter’s testimony not worthy of belief, given that the employee continued to work in a moderate to heavy-duty capacity for a long time after the alleged incident, did not report the incident until approximately two months later, and did not see a doctor until a year after the incident. 

The court found no basis for upsetting the judge’s determination that no assault occurred and that, therefore, the carpenter could not show he was injured at work.