Phil A. Livesley Co. v. Russ

This workers’ compensation case presents the question of whether an employe is entitled to benefits for injuries sustained in an unexplained on-the-job fall. We conclude that he is, provided he establishes that the fall occurred during the course of his employment and that it was not caused by idiopathic factors.

The relevant historical facts are uncontested. Claimant was working at his employer’s food-processing plant on February 5, 1980, when he sustained his injury. He had just completed a full eight-hour shift sorting onions on a production line. He was walking down a crowded aisle from…