American Protection Insurance Co. v. Leordeanu

278 S.W.3d 881, 2009 WL 349150
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 9, 2009
Docket03-06-00529-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 278 S.W.3d 881 (American Protection Insurance Co. v. Leordeanu) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Protection Insurance Co. v. Leordeanu, 278 S.W.3d 881, 2009 WL 349150 (Tex. Ct. App. 2009).

Opinions

OPINION

G. ALAN WALDROP, Justice.

We withdraw our prior opinion, dissenting opinion, and judgment in this case and substitute the following in their place.

American Protection Insurance Company appeals a district court judgment awarding workers’ compensation benefits to appellee Liana Leordeanu based on a jury’s finding that Leordeanu sustained a compensable injury while in the course and scope of her employment with American Protection’s insured, Schering Plough, Inc. The issue presented involves the application of section 401.011(12)(B) of the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act which is known as the “dual purpose rule.” This section governs the compensability of injuries sustained by an employee while traveling for both personal and business purposes. See Tex. Lab.Code Ann. § 401.011(12)(B) (West 2006). American Protection argues that there is no evidence to support the jury’s finding that Leor-deanu’s injury was compensable and that the trial court erred as a matter of law in applying the dual purpose rule of section 401.011(12)(B). We conclude that there is no evidence to support the jury’s finding that Leordeanu sustained a compensable injury under the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act. Accordingly, we reverse the judgment of the district court and render judgment that Leordeanu take nothing on her claims for workers’ compensation benefits.

At the time of her injury, Leordeanu worked for Schering Plough as a pharmaceutical sales representative. Her job duties required that she spend a significant portion of her time traveling to pharmacies and doctors’ offices within a designated area. Schering Plough provided Leordeanu with a car and with a storage unit for storing drug samples and marketing materials. Leordeanu’s storage unit was located at a storage facility next door to the apartment complex where she lived. In addition, Leordeanu testified that she maintained a business office in her apartment. From time to time as part of her job, Leordeanu would entertain doctors and their staff at local restaurants and pay for their drinks and food.

On March 21, 2003, Leordeanu met with a doctor and members of his staff for dinner at La Feria Restaurant in south Austin. After dinner and on her way [884]*884home from the restaurant, Leordeanu was involved in a single car accident and sustained serious injury. According to Leor-deanu, she had intended to stop at the storage unit next door to her apartment complex on her way home from the restaurant and then to finish job-related paper work at her home office.

American Protection, the workers’ compensation carrier for Schering Plough, denied Leordeanu’s claim for compensation for the injuries she sustained in the accident. Leordeanu then submitted the dispute to the Texas Department of Insurance Workers’ Compensation Commission Division. The Division held a contested case hearing and determined that Leor-deanu did not have a compensable claim because she was not in the course and scope of employment at the time of the accident.1 An appeals panel of the Division affirmed.

Leordeanu sought judicial review of the appeals panel’s decision. American Protection filed a motion for summary judgment arguing that the dual purpose rule of the Workers’ Compensation Act barred Leordeanu’s claim for benefits “because there has been no evidence offered that Ms. Leordeanu would not have gone home (that she would have abandoned the trip home) absent a business reason for going to the [storage unit]....” The district court denied American Protection’s motion for summary judgment, and the case was tried to a jury. The jury found that Leor-deanu sustained a compensable injury, and the district court entered judgment in favor of Leordeanu.

On appeal, American Protection argues that there is no evidence to support the jury’s finding that Leordeanu sustained a compensable injury. In reviewing no evidence points, we consider only the evidence and inferences that tend to support the finding and disregard all evidence and inferences to the contrary. Orozco v. Sander, 824 S.W.2d 555, 556 (Tex.1992). If there is more than a scintilla of evidence to support the finding, the no evidence challenge must fail. Id. We will sustain a no evidence point of error when (1) the record discloses a complete absence of evidence of a vital fact, (2) the court is barred by rules of law or of evidence from giving weight to the only evidence offered to prove a vital fact, (3) the evidence offered to prove a vital fact is no more than a mere scintilla, or (4) the evidence establishes conclusively the opposite of the vital fact. Uniroyal Goodrich Tire Co. v. Martinez, 977 S.W.2d 328, 334 (Tex.1998); Juliette Fotder Homes, Inc. v. Welch Assocs., Inc., 793 S.W.2d 660, 666 n. 9 (Tex.1990) (citing Robert W. Calvert, “No Evidence” and “Insufficient Evidence” Points of Error, 38 Tex.L.Rev. 361, 362-63 (1960)).

Under the Texas Workers’ Compensation Act, an insurance carrier is liable for compensation for an employee’s injury if the injury arises out of and in the course and scope of employment. Tex. Lab.Code. Ann. § 406.031 (West 2006). Generally, an employee is not in the course and scope of his employment while driving his own vehicle to and from his place of work. Soto v. Seven Seventeen HBE Corp., 52 S.W.3d 201, 205 (Tex.App.-Houston [14th Dist.] 2000, no pet.); Upton, v. Gensco, Inc., 962 S.W.2d 620, 621 (Tex.App.-Fort Worth 1997, pet. denied). The reasoning underlying this general rule is [885]*885that injury incurred in such travel does not arise out of that person’s employment, but rather is suffered due to the dangers and risks to which all traveling persons are exposed. Evans v. Illinois Employers Ins., 790 S.W.2d 302, 304 (Tex.1990). Stated another way, the general rule is that travel to and from work, without some special instruction or “special mission” from the employer directing the employee to proceed from one place to another, is considered travel for personal purposes rather than travel for business purposes. See id. Thus, under the Workers’ Compensation Act, travel for exclusively business purposes is considered within the course and scope of employment, and travel for exclusively personal purposes is not within the course and scope of employment. See Tex. Lab.Code Ann. § 401.011(12).

A different situation is presented when an employee is engaged in travel that has both personal and business-related purposes. The dual purpose rule is designed to address whether an employee is in the course and scope of employment for the purpose of coverage when injury occurs during travel that is for both personal and business purposes. See Tex. Lab.Code Ann. § 401.011(12)(B).

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Related

Leordeanu v. American Protection Insurance Co.
330 S.W.3d 239 (Texas Supreme Court, 2010)
American Protection Insurance Co. v. Leordeanu
278 S.W.3d 881 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 2009)

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Bluebook (online)
278 S.W.3d 881, 2009 WL 349150, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-protection-insurance-co-v-leordeanu-texapp-2009.