Southwest Airlines worker’s second injury caused by earlier work incident: Appeals court
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A back injury suffered by a Southwest Airlines Co. worker when he slipped outside of work was linked to an earlier work-related injury, a state appeals court ruled overturning a lower court.
Although there was a three-year gap between the injuries, the earlier injury was a “proximate cause” of the second injury, the Court of Appeals of Washington in Seattle ruled Monday in Southwest Airlines v. Kevin J. Luchi.
In 2011, Mr. Luchi suffered herniations in his vertebrae while working for Dallas-based Southwest, according to the ruling. He filed a workers compensation claim, underwent surgery and was later diagnosed with right leg radiculopathy — which causes pain or numbness — due to scar tissue from the surgery.
Mr. Luchi continued to experience pain in his lower back, frequently tripping and falling, court records say.
In 2014, as he was entering a post office, Mr. Luchi slipped and jarred his leg. A subsequent MRI showed that another disc in his back was herniated.
Washington’s Department of Labor and Industries said the second back injury was unrelated to the earlier injury, but the state’s Board of Industrial Insurance Appeals reversed the decision, ruling that the earlier injury was a proximate cause of the second injury. Southwest appealed, and Washington’s King County Superior Court reversed the board’s decision.
In its ruling, the appeals court said Southwest claimed that it was plausible that Mr. Luchi slipped outside the post office “because of a puddle of water or a banana peel on the floor. But uncontroverted evidence in the record supports Luchi’s claim that he slipped, as he had many times after his industrial injury, because of his radiculopathy. The record contains no evidence of a puddle of water, a banana, or any other alternative explanation.”
The appeals court reversed and remanded the trial court ruling.
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