In Illinois, the court of appeals found that a claimant was eligible for benefits after he injured himself on a swivel chair at work. Take it from me, those chairs can get pretty out of control if you’re not careful with them.

David Adcock worked for Knaak Manufacturing as a welder. Since May of 2007 he had worked in a seated position since he had a condition in his right knee from his welding duties. He injured his knee in May of 2010 when he was welding and pushed off his left leg in an attempt to swivel his chair to the right to work. He heard his left knee pop and felt immediate pain. He told his supervisor right away, and Adcock iced it but continued to work the next three days. He took a three day vacation and after returning his pain still had not gone away. He went to an occupational health clinic and was diagnosed with a left knee sprain and put on light duty. He continued to follow up with his diagnosing doctor, Dr. Jablonowski. She determined that his condition had gotten worse and after receiving an MRI she thought he had torn his meniscus and a surgeon Dr. Rochell determined he needed arthroscopic surgery and recommended that he no longer work until the surgery.

He received an IME from his employer’s doctor, Dr. Wolin in August of 2010, which stated that Dr. Wolin did not believe his work activities really led to the tear. He said the “mechanics” of his work would not have been enough to lead to a meniscus tear and that he did not feel the surgery was the right course of action, though he was viewing a video of another worker doing the same work Adcock did, and did not actually see the incident in which Adcock injured himself. Adcock still got the arthroscopic surgery and followed with PT until Dr. Rochell determined he could go back to work in January of 2011.

When the workers’ comp arbitrator awarded Adcock TTD benefits, medical expenses and PPD up to a 20% loss of use of his left leg, his employer appealed. The workers’ compensation commission disagreed with the arbitrator and denied his claim, saying his injury could have happened anywhere and his work place did not pose any dangers that were specific to that workplace and would have contributed to his injury. Adcock appealed and was awarded benefits, because it was found that his injury did arise from the course and scope of his work. The circuit court said that he was clearly at work when it happened and he was trying to do his assigned duties. They said that the employee was exposed to this risk more so than the general public, so even though his workplace did not present an outright danger he still was faced with an elevated level of risk because his duties required him to work fast, turning in his chair over and over at a rapid pace. He was expected to weld about 70 locks a day. Everyday life would not require you to do that much moving back and forth while sitting in a chair.