As if it knew we would be discussing this topic at the 26th Annual McNees Labor and Employment Seminar on June 3rd, in Hershey, PA, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania recently issued a decision addressing whether an injury occurring in an employer’s parking lot was sustained in the course and scope of employment for purposes of workers’ compensation coverage.
In Quality Bicycle Products, Inc. v. WCAB, the employer challenged the claim related to an injury sustained by an employee while the employee was running to his car. The claimant was leaving work after receiving a panicked message from his wife that his daughter was missing from school. While running through the parking lot to his car, he heard a pop in his knee, felt excruciating pain and fell to the pavement. The employer denied benefits for the knee injury, arguing that the claimant was not in the course and scope of his employment at the time he was injured.
An injury occurs within the course and scope of employment, and is considered work related, if: “(1) the claimant was furthering the interest of the employer’s business at the time of the injury; or (2) if the injury was caused by a condition of the employer’s premises or the operation of employer’s business thereon.” The employer argued that claimant could not meet either prong of this test. The Court agreed.
In analyzing the case, the Court first noted that “an injury suffered while traveling to and from work [which claimant was in this case] is not considered to have occurred in the course and scope of employment.” This is because the employee is not furthering the business or affairs of his employer while merely commuting. When an employee is not furthering the business of the employer, the employee must satisfy the three part premises test to demonstrate a work related injury: (1) the injury occurred on the employer’s premises; (2) the employee’s presence thereon was required by the nature of his employment; and (3) the injury was caused by the condition of the premises or by the operation of employer’s business thereon. In Quality Bicycle, the parties agreed that the first two prongs were satisfied, but the employer argued that the third was not. The Court agreed, explaining that the parking lot neither caused nor contributed to claimant’s injury. Rather his injury was caused by his own act of running. The Court distinguished this case from others where the injury was found to be work related – an employee who suffered a seizure in his car and was injured when he wrecked into a concrete abutment on employer’s property; an employee who was thrown off the hood of a moving car when the driver turned suddenly to avoid a closed exit gate. In both those cases, it was the employer’s premises (the concrete abutment, the closed gate) that caused or contributed to the accident. Conversely in Quality Bicycle, claimant’s knee popped as a result of his running, not because of a bump, hole or rock on the pavement.
The lesson from this case is that employers should thoroughly investigate questionable claims and analyze such claims down to the most minor detail. If an injury occurs on the premises, don’t automatically assume that it is work related. In Quality Bicycle, claimant’s admissions that his knee simply popped, he felt pain and then fell to the pavement were key to the employer’s denial and ultimate success. Accordingly, we strongly recommend that an employer’s injury report include space for the employee to state, in his/her own words, what happened and what caused the injury.
To learn more about what injuries are and are not work related, join us on June 3, 2016 for our 26th Annual Labor and Employment Seminar.