Last week, the Court of Appeals of Virginia decided whether a claimant was entitled to workers' compensation benefits for injuries resulting from a spider bite that occurred while she was working. The case is James Madison Univ. v. Housden, No. 1252-19-3, 2020 Va. App. LEXIS 63 (Ct. App. Mar 10, 2020).

At the time she suffered her injury, in February 2018, Irma Housden had been working at James Madison University in Virginia as an administrative assistant for thirty-seven years. Housden worked on the third floor, in an office space that had formerly been a high school.  The boiler room of the building Housden worked in had been under construction since December 2017.

When Housden got to work on the morning of February 13th, 2018, she claims she saw two spiders on a counter. She killed those spiders but failed to administer a fatal blow to a third spider she saw on a cabinet. Later that day, while speaking with a co-worker, Housden felt a bite on her foot. She exclaimed that she had been bitten and noted at least two bites on her foot. She went to the emergency room where the doctor noted swelling and redness on the injured foot. Housden identified the spiders in the office to be poisonous brown recluse spiders, based on pictures. The attending doctor also indicated in medical records that a brown recluse bite was suspected. Housden was admitted to the hospital and underwent surgery for the bites, and was not released until February 22, 2018.