Gildehaus v. Husky Corp.

718 S.W.2d 600, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4626
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedSeptember 2, 1986
DocketNo. 50727
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 718 S.W.2d 600 (Gildehaus v. Husky Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gildehaus v. Husky Corp., 718 S.W.2d 600, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4626 (Mo. Ct. App. 1986).

Opinion

SNYDER, Chief Judge.

This is an appeal from an award of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission denying workers’ compensation benefits for the death of Michael Gildehaus. The administrative law judge awarded death benefits to the dependents of Mrs. Gilde-haus, but the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission, in a split decision, reversed the administrative law judge’s award and denied the benefits. The Commission ruled that the accident which caused decedent’s injuries and death did not arise out of and in the course of her employment. Section 287.120.1 RSMo. 1978. The judgment of the Commission is affirmed.

At the time of the accident, respondent Husky Corporation employed the decedent, Michael Gildehaus. Husky owns and operates an industrial plant in Dailey Industrial Park in Pacific, Missouri. The plant is located on the south side of Industrial Drive, a dedicated public street. Industrial Drive is about one-half mile long and runs east-west. At its westernmost point, Industrial Drive dead ends into a field. Industrial Drive’s eastern terminus is a “T” intersection with Denton Road, a through street which runs north-south.

There are no other through streets which intersect Industrial Drive; therefore, the only access to Husky or any other business in Dailey Industrial Park is from Denton Road to Industrial Drive, where all the businesses in the industrial park are located. About fifty feet before it intersects with Denton Road, Industrial Drive crosses the Frisco railroad tracks which run in a north-south direction parallel to and west of Denton. This crossing is marked by standard crossbuck warning signs without lights. It is the crossing where the accident occurred.

Husky owns and controls its plant and parking lot, both of which are more than 100 yards west of the Industrial Drive-Frisco railroad crossing.

Gildehaus’ normal working hours were 8:00 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. On August 14, 1981, around 4:39 p.m., she left the plant parking lot in her automobile. Gildehaus drove east on Industrial Drive, intending to cross the Frisco tracks, turn north on Denton Road and continue driving toward her residence. While crossing the Frisco tracks, her automobile was struck by a northbound train. As a result of the injuries sustained in that accident, Mrs. Gildehaus died on August 29, 1981.

The sole issue on appeal is whether the accident which caused Mrs. Gildehaus’ death arose “out of and in the course of” her employment. Where the facts are not in dispute, this question is a matter of law, and the Commission’s decision is not binding on the reviewing court. Kansas City, Missouri Police Dept. v. Bradshaw, 606 S.W.2d 227, 231 [1] (Mo.App.1980); Hunt v. Allis-Chalmers Manufacturing Co., 445 S.W.2d 400, 401 (Mo.App.1969).

Section 287.120.1 RSMo.1978 requires that an accident, to be compensable under the workers’ compensation law, must arise out of and in the course of the worker’s employment. The statute further provides in § 287.020.5 RSMo.Cum.Supp.1984:

Without otherwise affecting either the meaning or interpretation of the abridged clause, “personal injuries arising out of and in the course of such employment”, it is hereby declared not to cover workers except while engaged in or about the premises where their duties are being performed, or where their services require their presence as a part of such service.

The decedent was not engaged in work on the premises where she normally performed her duties, nor did her services require her presence at the crossing where she was injured as a part of her service. She was there because she was on her way home.

Injuries sustained by an employee while going to or from work are not generally held to arise out of and in the course of his employment and thus are not compensable. [602]*602Kammeyer v. Board of Education, 393 S.W.2d 122, 130 [11-14] (Mo.App.1965).

The accident causing the claimants’ decedent’s injuries and death did not arise out of and in the course of her employment, but occurred while she was going home from work. The facts in this accident do not bring it within the exception to the general rule which applies when there is an extension of an employer’s premises to include the place of an accident which happens away from the premises. Hunt, 445 S.W.2d at 409[6],

The place of the accident was a public road where it crossed the Frisco tracks. Husky had no control over or responsibility for the road or the crossing, which were the responsibility of the city and the railroad. The accident occurred approximately 350 feet away from the nearest corner of the Husky factory building. The hazards of the crossing were typical of those at any similar railroad crossing. The crossing was used by the general public.

At the crossing where the accident occurred, the Frisco railroad tracks were not adjacent or contiguous to the Husky premises. A spur track runs southwest from the main line and along the south edge of the Husky property. The Commission found no evidence that Husky did any business with the Frisco Railroad, and no evidence Husky exercised any control over the public grade crossing which was the site of the accident.

There were nine other industrial establishments in Dailey Industrial Park at the time of the accident. These establishments employed approximately five hundred people who used the Industrial Drive thoroughfare as their only means of going to their employment. In addition to the people who worked in the industrial park, the road was used by suppliers, sales persons, delivery trucks and the like. Industrial Drive was open to the public and any person who visited any one of the ten establishments would be required to use Industrial Drive if he came by motor vehicle.

If Husky should be found liable to an employee under the circumstances here, then every other business establishment in the Industrial Park could also be held liable under the workers’ compensation law for any injury incurred by an employee while he was crossing the tracks on Industrial Drive, even if the premises of the business should be as far as half a mile from the crossing. If this court should rule in appellant’s favor, the principle adopted would be applicable to industrial parks where there are twenty industries, or fifty, or perhaps more than one hundred, provided there was only one hazardous entrance to the park for all of the business establishments. No Missouri cases have gone so far.

An early case in which an employee attempted to collect workers’ compensation for injuries he received when he was struck by a train while crossing the tracks was Tucker v. Daniel Hamm Drayage Co., 171 S.W.2d 781 (Mo.App.1943). The Commission denied compensation. On appeal the then St. Louis Court of Appeals affirmed the denial.

The court held that the accident did not arise out of and in the course of appellant’s employment and cited the general rule that harm sustained by an employee going to and from his work is not compensable. Tucker, 171 S.W.2d at 784[2]. The accident in Tucker occurred at a railroad track at the intersection of Main and Biddle Streets in St.

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Bluebook (online)
718 S.W.2d 600, 1986 Mo. App. LEXIS 4626, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gildehaus-v-husky-corp-moctapp-1986.