Bilyeu v. State ex rel. Wyoming Workers' Safety & Compensation Division

2012 WY 141, 287 P.3d 773, 2012 WL 5373916, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 147
CourtWyoming Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 2, 2012
DocketNo. S-12-0051
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2012 WY 141 (Bilyeu v. State ex rel. Wyoming Workers' Safety & Compensation Division) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wyoming Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bilyeu v. State ex rel. Wyoming Workers' Safety & Compensation Division, 2012 WY 141, 287 P.3d 773, 2012 WL 5373916, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 147 (Wyo. 2012).

Opinions

KITE, Chief Justice.

[11] Gordon R. Bilyeu was injured in an accident while driving his motorcycle to work. He filed a claim for worker's compensation benefits asserting that his injuries were covered because he sustained them while traveling to work and his employer reimbursed him for travel expenses. The Wyoming Worker's Compensation Division (the Division) denied his claim. After a contested case hearing, the Office of Administrative Hearings (the OAH) also denied his claim. Mr. Bilyeu sought review of the OAH ruling in district court, which affirmed the denial. He now appeals to this court claiming the OAH's decision is contrary to the evidence because it ignored evidence showing that his employer reimbursed him for travel expenses. We affirm.

ISSUE

[12] The issue for this Court's determination is whether the OAH's conclusion that Mr. Bilyeu failed to meet his burden of proving he was reimbursed for travel expenses within the meaning of Wyo. Stat. Ann. § 27-14-102(a)(xi)(D) (LexisNexis 2011) was contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

FACTS

[13] Mr. Bilyeu worked as a boilermaker for Babcock & Wileox Construction for thirty years. In June of 2010, he was working at Dry Fork Station Power Plant (Dry Fork) near Gillette, Wyoming. His home address was in Texas, but he was living at the time in Gillette in order to work at Dry Fork. He was driving his motorcycle to work from his home in Gillette on June 28, 2010, when he was involved in an accident. He sustained a broken ankle, broken ribs, a broken collar bone, a collapsed lung, and lacerations.

[14] Mr. Bilyeu filed a claim for worker's compensation benefits asserting that his injuries were covered because he was "reimbursed for travel expenses" as provided in § 27-14-102(a)(xi)(D). That section states:

§ 27-14-102. Definitions.
(a) As used in this act:
(xi) "Injury" means any harmful change in the human organism other than normal aging and includes damage to or loss of any artificial replacement and death, arising out of and in the course of employment while at work in or about the premises occupied, used or controlled by the employer and incurred while at work in places where the employer's business requires an employee's presence and which subjects the employee to extrahazardous duties incident to the business. "Injury" does not include:
(D) Any injury sustained during travel to or from employment unless the employee is reimbursed for travel expenses or is transported by a vehicle of the employer;

(Emphasis added.)

[15] At the contested case hearing, Mr. Bilyeu presented evidence that he received per diem of $60 per day while working on the Dry Fork project. Citing In re Van Matre, 657 P.2d 815 (Wyo.1983), the OAH concluded Mr. Bilyeu did not meet his burden of prov[775]*775ing that the $60 per diem was intended to reimburse him for his travel expenses. The OAH concluded the evidence showed instead that the per diem was tied to the number of hours Mr. Bilyeu worked, was intended as additional compensation negotiated by Mr. Bilyeu's union and had no relationship to actual travel expenses. On that basis, the OAH concluded the per diem did not constitute reimbursement for travel expenses and Mr. Bilyeu's injuries were not covered.

[16] Mr. Bilyeu filed a petition for review of the OAH order in district court. After hearing argument, the district court agreed that the evidence did not show the per diem was intended to reimburse Mr. Bilyeu for travel expenses and affirmed the OAH ruling. Mr. Bilyeu appealed to this Court, claiming the ruling is contrary to the evidence.

STANDARD OF REVIEW

[17] The OAH concluded Mr. Bilyeu did not meet his burden of proving that he was reimbursed for his travel expenses. When an agency concludes a claimant failed to meet his burden of proof, our task is to decide whether there is substantial evidence to support the agency's decision to reject the evidence offered by the burdened party by considering whether that conclusion was contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence in the record as a whole. Davenport v. State ex rel. Wyoming Workers' Safety & Comp. Div., 2012 WY 6, ¶ 12, 268 P.3d 1038, 1041-42 (Wyo.2012).

DISCUSSION

[T8] As reflected in paragraph 4 above, § 27-14-102(a)(xi)(D) provides that an injury sustained by an employee while traveling to or from work is not compensable under the Worker's Compensation Act unless the employee is reimbursed for travel expenses or is transported by a vehicle of the employer. We have said that this provision "constitutes a legislative determination that, while no compensable nexus with the employment is generally present when an employee is traveling between home and work, such a nexus is created where the employer has assumed the cost of that travel." Berg v. State ex rel. Wyoming Workers' Safety & Comp. Div., 2005 WY 23, ¶ 8, 106 P.3d 867, 871 (Wyo.2005), quoting Archuleta v. Carbon County School District No. 1, 787 P.2d 91, 92 (Wyo.1990). Thus, the question in this case was whether Mr. Bilyeu's employer assumed the cost of travel between his home and work. The OAH concluded Mr. Bilyeu did not meet his burden of proving that nexus. We consider whether the OAH's conclusion is contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence.

[T9] The union contract applicable to Mr. Bilyeu's employment at Dry Fork stated in relevant part as follows:

ARTICLE 16-TRAVEL AND SUBSISTENCE
A per diem allowance shall apply on the Project, as outlined in Appendix A. This per diem allowance does not include pay for travel time or mileage.
ARTICLE 17-GENERAL - WORKING CONDITIONS
Section 17-1. Employment begins and ends at the Project site.
seo se ok
Appendix A
A-4 - Per Diem Allowance
A-4.1 Per diem allowance will be based on mileage from the employee home address to the Dry Fork Station site.
A-42 Per diem allowance for the time period July 1, 2009, shall be paid as follows:
0 to 20 miles-$10.00 per day worked
Over 20 miles to 50 milese-$830.00 per day worked
Over 50 miles-$60.00 per day worked.
A-4.3 - Holidays, rain, breakdowns, or any reason the employees are stopped by the Employer from working will be considered days worked and per diem paid. Employees absent from work shall not be paid per diem for the day absent.
A-4 4 An employee must work the scheduled work day before or the scheduled [776]*776work day following a holiday that occurs Monday through Friday, to be entitled to per diem for the holiday, unless exeused.
A-4.5 Employees who leave the job before the end of the shift except for reasons beyond their control, such as illness in family, court summons, bona fide illness, ete.

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Bluebook (online)
2012 WY 141, 287 P.3d 773, 2012 WL 5373916, 2012 Wyo. LEXIS 147, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bilyeu-v-state-ex-rel-wyoming-workers-safety-compensation-division-wyo-2012.