{
  "id": 8525056,
  "name": "KATHRYN N. BEAM, Employee, Plaintiff v. FLOYD'S CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH, Employer; NORTH CAROLINA FARM BUREAU MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Carrier, Defendant",
  "name_abbreviation": "Beam v. Floyd's Creek Baptist Church",
  "decision_date": "1990-08-07",
  "docket_number": "No. 8910IC1174",
  "first_page": "767",
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  "last_updated": "2023-07-14T22:38:52.620321+00:00",
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    "date_added": "2019-08-29",
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  "casebody": {
    "judges": [
      "Judges Arnold and Phillips concur."
    ],
    "parties": [
      "KATHRYN N. BEAM, Employee, Plaintiff v. FLOYD\u2019S CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH, Employer; NORTH CAROLINA FARM BUREAU MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Carrier, Defendant"
    ],
    "opinions": [
      {
        "text": "COZORT, Judge.\nDefendants appeal from an order of the Industrial Commission affirming an award of attorney\u2019s fees based on the Commissioner\u2019s finding that the claim was defended without reasonable grounds. We affirm.\nOn 11 December 1987, claimant Kathryn Beam, aged 57, was employed as a secretary for defendant Floyd\u2019s Creek Baptist Church. Her duties included bookkeeping and preparing the weekly bulletin and payroll. On that date, the church\u2019s pastor, The Reverend James C. Diehl, asked claimant to help him carry a three-foot-long, 75-pound spotlight up a flight of stairs to a balcony. Claimant and Reverend Diehl carried the spotlight up the stairs with claimant walking backwards while bent over at the waist. Claimant did not stumble or trip, or twist or turn, while carrying the spotlight. Claimant suffered back pain when she awoke the next morning, and she immediately notified Reverend Diehl and the Chairman of the Board of Deacons and sought medical attention.\nThe Deputy Commissioner, Morgan S. Chapman, concluded that claimant suffered an \u201cinjury by accident arising out of and in the course of her employment,\u201d N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 97-2(6) (1989), and awarded compensation. The Deputy Commissioner also assessed a $500.00 attorney\u2019s fee against defendants based on a finding that the case was defended without reasonable grounds. The Commission affirmed. On appeal, defendants contest only the award of attorney\u2019s fees.\nN.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 97-88.1 provides, \u201cIf the Industrial Commission shall determine that any hearing has been ... defended without reasonable ground, it may assess the whole cost of the proceedings including reasonable fees for . . . plaintiff\u2019s attorney upon the party who has . . . defended them.\u201d The purpose of that section is to prevent \u201cstubborn, unfounded litigiousness\u201d which is inharmonious with the primary purpose of the Workers\u2019 Compensation Act to provide compensation to injured employees. Sparks v. Mountain Breeze Restaurant & Fish House, Inc., 55 N.C. App. 663, 664, 286 S.E.2d 575, 576 (1982).\nDefendant contends that its denial of coverage was reasonable because it was justified in concluding that there was no \u201cspecific traumatic incident,\u201d N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 97-2(6), and because claimant did not feel back pain until she awoke the next morning and thus causation was at issue. We do not agree. Both claimant and Reverend Diehl informed defendants that claimant, a 57-year-old woman who performed secretarial tasks for her employer, suffered back pain the day after she helped carry a heavy, unwieldy spotlight up a flight of steps while walking backwards and bent over at the waist. Clearly, that activity was not within her normal work routine. This evidence established that claimant\u2019s injury resulted from a specific traumatic incident that \u201coccurred at a cognizable time.\u201d Bradley v. E.B. Sportswear, Inc., 77 N.C. App. 450, 452, 335 S.E.2d 52, 53 (1985). The fact that claimant did not experience pain contemporaneously with that incident does not, by itself, justify defendant\u2019s decision to contest this claim. We hold that the evidence supported a finding that defendant had no reasonable basis for concluding that this claim was not compensable.\nIn response to claimant\u2019s Motion filed with this Court, we remand this cause to the Commission for an assessment of reasonable attorney\u2019s fees incurred since the appeal from Deputy Commissioner Chapman\u2019s Order and Award. See N.C. Gen. Stat. \u00a7 97-88 (1989); Taylor v. J. P. Stevens Co., 307 N.C. 392, 298 S.E.2d 681 (1983).\nAffirmed and remanded for assessment of attorney\u2019s fees.\nJudges Arnold and Phillips concur.",
        "type": "majority",
        "author": "COZORT, Judge."
      }
    ],
    "attorneys": [
      "M. Leonard Lowe for plaintiff appellee.",
      "Young, Moore, Henderson & Alvis, P.A., by J. D. Prather, for defendant appellants."
    ],
    "corrections": "",
    "head_matter": "KATHRYN N. BEAM, Employee, Plaintiff v. FLOYD\u2019S CREEK BAPTIST CHURCH, Employer; NORTH CAROLINA FARM BUREAU MUTUAL INSURANCE COMPANY, Carrier, Defendant\nNo. 8910IC1174\n(Filed 7 August 1990)\nMaster and Servant \u00a7 99 (NCI3d)\u2014 workers\u2019 compensation \u2014 defense without reasonable grounds \u2014 attorney fees\nThe evidence supported a finding that defendants had no reasonable basis for concluding that a workers\u2019 compensation claim was not compensable where both claimant, a church secretary, and the church\u2019s pastor informed defendants that claimant suffered back pain the day after she helped carry a heavy, unwieldy spotlight up a flight of steps while walking backwards and bent over at the waist, plaintiff is a fifty-seven-year-old woman who performed secretarial tasks for her employer, this activity was clearly not within her normal work routine, and the fact that claimant did not experience pain contemporaneously with the incident does not by itself justify defendants\u2019 decision to contest the claim. Moreover, the matter was remanded to the Industrial Commission for an assessment of reasonable attorney\u2019s fees incurred since the appeal from the Deputy Commissioner\u2019s Order and Award. N.C.G.S. \u00a7 97-88.1.\nAm Jur 2d, Workmen\u2019s Compensation \u00a7\u00a7 289, 644, 646, 647.\nAPPEAL by defendants from the Opinion and Award of the Industrial Commission entered 28 June 1989. Heard in the Court of Appeals 3 May 1990.\nM. Leonard Lowe for plaintiff appellee.\nYoung, Moore, Henderson & Alvis, P.A., by J. D. Prather, for defendant appellants."
  },
  "file_name": "0767-01",
  "first_page_order": 797,
  "last_page_order": 799
}