Varela v. Fisher Roofing Co., Inc.

I respectfully dissent. The trial judge made a specific finding that while unloading roofing supplies on a wet roof, Varela responded to verbal “mocking” by coworkers by challenging one of them to an arm-wrestling contest and that his injury occurred “in preparation or during the arm-wrestling contest.” Based on these findings, I regard the determination that Varela’s injury occurred as a result of conduct arising out of his employment to be clearly erroneous.

Whether an accident arose “out of” and “in the course of” employment, as those terms are used in the workers’ compensation law, must be…