## Facts

- Beverly Fetzer fell while walking in a hallway on her employer’s premises during work hours, fracturing her left hip and wrist.
- Fetzer thought she heard someone call her name; when she turned, she caught her foot and fell.
- The parties stipulated the fall was “unexplained,” with no evidence of a slippery floor, defect, foreign substance, or other workplace hazard.
- Fetzer sought workers’ compensation benefits from North Dakota Workforce Safety and Insurance (WSI).
- WSI denied benefits, concluding the injury occurred “in the course of” employment but did not “arise out of” employment because mere walking, without more, lacked a sufficient work connection.
- After reconsideration and an administrative hearing, an ALJ affirmed the denial; the district court affirmed.
- Fetzer appealed, arguing North Dakota should apply the positional-risk doctrine because employment placed her where the injury occurred.

## Issues

1. Whether an unexplained fall on the employer’s premises during work hours satisfies the statutory requirement that the injury “arise out of” employment.
2. Whether North Dakota should adopt the positional-risk doctrine, permitting causation to be inferred from the fact the employee was at work when the injury occurred.

## Decision

- The North Dakota Supreme Court affirmed the denial of benefits.
- The court held claimants must prove a causal connection between employment and injury to meet the “arising out of” requirement.
- The court rejected the positional-risk doctrine as inconsistent with the statutory causation requirement.
- Because Fetzer offered no evidence linking her fall to a work-related risk or condition beyond being at work and walking, she failed to meet her burden.

## Legal Principles

- A compensable workers’ compensation injury must both occur “in the course of” employment (time, place, circumstances) and “arise out of” employment (causal relationship).
- “Arising out of” requires proof of a causal nexus between the employment and the injury; presence at work alone is insufficient.
- The positional-risk doctrine is not part of North Dakota workers’ compensation law because it eliminates the statutory requirement of proving causation.
- In an unexplained-fall case, absent evidence that a workplace condition or duty contributed to the fall, the claimant does not establish that the injury arose out of employment.

## Conclusion

North Dakota requires workers’ compensation claimants to prove that employment causally contributed to the injury; an unexplained fall at work is not compensable without evidence tying the fall to a work-related risk, and the positional-risk doctrine does not supply the missing causation.


Fetzer v. N.D. Workforce Safety & Ins., 815 N.W.2d 539 (N.D. 2012)