Montgomery County sues librarian who hurt herself trying to get shampoo bottle out of car
By: Alan Suderman
Examiner Staff Writer
November 3, 2009
Montgomery County is suing a county librarian who won about $5,500 in workers' compensation for hurting herself while trying to retrieve a shampoo bottle from her car during her lunch break, court records show.
Ginger Wilson, 64, said a gust of wind blew her car door into her while she was getting into her car at the Twinbrook library, causing her to fall and hurt her left arm, knee and foot. Wilson was trying to get a shampoo bottle because she had scheduled a hair appointment for her lunch break, court records show.
Wilson had surgery on her left wrist because of the injury and filed a workers' compensation claim. The Maryland Workers' Compensation Commission found that her injuries arose "out of and in the course of employment" and awarded her six weeks' worth of workers' compensation.
It also awarded her lawyer, Nadine Osinski, $582.44 as part of its decision. Osinski declined to comment.
The county has filed an appeal in Circuit Court seeking to overturn the commission's decision.
During the hearing before the commission, Associate County Attorney Susan Chagrin tried to make the case that Wilson's injuries had "no proximate cause to her employment."
"That hair appointment had nothing to do with your employment as a librarian?" Chagrin asked Wilson at the commission's hearing.
"I was going to be eating my lunch while I was getting my hair done," Wilson replied.
Workers' compensation claims have been costly to the county, with the county paying $32 million in claims over the last three fiscal years. County officials have expressed frustration at the type of claims the commission has approved recently, including:
» A county firefighter who was given a month's disability leave because of the emotional distress she suffered after the search and rescue dog she trained sustained a career-ending injury. The county settled with the firefighter for $1,615 after initially appealing the decision.
» A county permit technician who said she had couldn't work at her desk job for several weeks because of nagging back pain caused by fall at work in 1997. The employee was filmed by a private investigator touring Luray Caverns and having a picnic, and a jury overturned a commission's decision to award her workers' compensation.
