GA: nurse injured on non-scheduled lunch break: was nurse eligible for workers' compensation?

CASE FACTS: Rita Adams was employed by ATC Healthcare Service, Inc., (ATC) a healthcare agency that provided nurses to hospitals including state hospitals and prisons. In July of 2000, ATC sent Nurse Adams to Augusta State Medical Prison for a three-day training class conducted by a Department of Corrections employee. Nurse Adams arrived at the prison and attended the first morning session. At approximately 11:30 a.m., the class was released for a lunch break. The attendees were instructed to return at 1:00 p.m. Since the prison did not have a lunch facility, Adams and several classmates drove to a nearby restaurant for lunch. While in the restaurant, Adams slipped and fell, injuring her right knee, which required surgery. Three weeks after surgery, she returned to work. ATC had no available positions. However, she secured employment in a hospital emergency room. Nurse Adams filed a workers' compensation claim against ATC seeking temporary total disability benefits. ATC disputed the claim, asserting that the nurse's injury did not arise out of and the course of her employment. ATC argued that the nurse was on a "regularly scheduled" lunch break at the time she fell and was thus precluded from obtaining Workers' compensation. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) rejected that argument, finding that the lunch break was not "regularly scheduled" and that the injury arose out of and in the course of employment. The nurse was awarded temporary total disability benefits. The Appellate Division and the Superior Court affirmed the award. ATC appealed.

COURT'S OPINION: The Court of Appeals of Georgia reversed the judgment of the lower court. The court held, inter alia, that the Workers' Compensation Act covers only injuries arising out of and in the course of employment. The record demonstrated that the nurse slipped and fell at a restaurant while on a "scheduled lunch break." The court found that the nurse was free to use her "break" in any manner she wished, and that ATC exercised no control over her activities during that period. Accordingly, the court concluded that the nurse's injury arose "out of [her] individual pursuit and not out of [her] employment." Editor's Note: Two dissenting opinions were filed. Two other judges joined in one of the dissenting opinions. Thus, a total of four judges disagreed with the majority. One dissenting judge focused on the fact that the court's job in reviewing the lower court's decision was "to decide whether there was sufficient evidence to support the decision of the Board." One judge opined that the ALJ's finding that the lunch break was "not scheduled" at a precise time should not have been overruled by the majority. ATC Healthcare Service, Inc. v. Adams, 2003 WL 22429057 S.E.2d--GA