Hastings v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance

595 A.2d 1150, 407 Pa. Super. 282, 1991 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2022
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJuly 25, 1991
DocketNos. 2859 & 3062
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 595 A.2d 1150 (Hastings v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hastings v. Pennsylvania National Mutual Casualty Insurance, 595 A.2d 1150, 407 Pa. Super. 282, 1991 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2022 (Pa. Ct. App. 1991).

Opinion

MONTEMURO, Judge:

This is an appeal, from an order granting appellees’ motion for summary judgment.

In January of 1984, William Hastings sustained serious and permanent injuries when the vehicle he was driving home from his place of employment, appellant John Kennedy Ford, was struck in the rear by another car. Mr. Hastings began receiving first party medical and wage loss benefits from appellee Pennsylvania National Mutual Insurance Company (Penn Mutual), the carrier of John Kennedy Ford’s no fault insurance policy. However, the payments ceased in May of 1984, and Mr. Hastings instituted suit against Penn Mutual, alleging wrongful denial of benefits. In its Answer and New Matter, Penn Mutual contended that all required payments had been made, and alleged that as the injuries had occurred within the course and scope of Mr. Hastings employment, they were compensable by worker’s compensation. Penn Mutual then impleaded John Kennedy Ford, and its worker’s compensation carrier, appellant American Fire and Casualty Company as third party defen[285]*285dants; their answer contained a cross claim against Penn Mutual.

The third party defendants unsuccessfully filed a summary judgment motion alleging that Mr. Hastings was not acting within the course and scope of his employment when the accident occurred. Penn Mutual’s subsequent motion for summary judgment claiming entitlement to reimbursement of all payments made to Mr. Hastings was granted, and this appeal followed.

The crux of the matter before us, and the basis of the single issue presented, is whether Mr. Hastings was acting in the course and scope of his employment because the vehicle he was driving at the time of the accident had been provided by the automobile dealership which employed him as a salesman.

Prior to addressing this issue, we reiterate the standard to be applied where the grant of summary judgment has been challenged.

We will uphold a grant of summary judgment only in those cases in which the pleadings, depositions, interrogatories, and admissions on file, together with affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue of material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law. Pa.R.C.P. 1035(b). In reviewing a grant of summary judgment, we accept as true all well-pleaded facts in the non-moving party’s pleadings and give the non-moving party the benefit of all reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom. Lookenbill v. Garrett, 340 Pa.Super. 435, 490 A.2d 857 (1985).

Rosen v. Tessoro Petroleum Corporation, 399 Pa.Super. 226, 228-29, 582 A.2d 27, 28-29 (1990).

In defining the scope of employment for purposes of worker’s compensation, our Supreme Court has ruled that

Ordinarily the [Worker’s Compensation] Acts have no application where the employe is going to or coming from his work. But where the contract of employment provides that the employer shall furnish the means of going [286]*286and returning from work, the employe is regarded as engaged in the furtherance of his employer’s business during such transportation. Butrin v. Manion Steel Barrel Company, 361 Pa. 166, 63 A.2d 345 [1949].

McIntyre v. Strausser, 365 Pa. 507, 509, 76 A.2d 220, 221 (1950) (emphasis in original).

The exceptions to the “going and coming” rule have been further refined to include four conditions under which the rule would not apply:

1) where the contract of employment included the provision of transportation to and from work;
2) where the claimant has no fixed place of work;
3) where the claimant is on a special mission for his employer;
4) where special circumstances exist such that the claimant is furthering the business of the employer.

Rittner v. Workmen’s Compensation Appeal Board, 76 Pa.Cmwlth. 596, 600, 464 A.2d 675, 678 (1983). See also, Hall v. Midland Insurance Company, 320 Pa.Super. 281, 467 A.2d 324 (1983); Newman v. Congregation of Mercy and Truth, 196 Pa.Super. 350, 353, 175 A.2d 160, 162 (1961).

It is undisputed that at the time the car was struck, Mr. Hastings was off his employer’s premises at the end of a normal work day, with no plans to return until the following morning. The car in question, a 1984 Ford Thunderbird, was unregistered, bearing dealer’s license plates, and insured under a fleet policy. Appellant John Kennedy Ford was reimbursed by Mr. Hastings at the rate of approximately $25 per week for the use of this vehicle. It is the status of the car upon which the trial court and the parties have focused their attention in arguing whether Hastings was or was not acting within the course and scope of his employment, appellants insisting that the automobile was furnished solely for Mr. Hastings’ benefit, and appellees that the salesman’s operation of the car constituted it a mobile advertisement for the manufacturer and the dealership. It is with the latter that the trial court agreed, [287]*287relying on decisional law from Tennessee, Anderson v. Sam Monday Motors, 619 S.W.2d 382 (1981), to support its conclusion that Mr. Hastings was engaged in furthering his employer’s business while driving the car it provided. We are not, however, bound by the law of another state. Apfelbaum v. Markley, 134 Pa.Super. 392, 3 A.2d 975 (1939).

In Hall v. Midland Insurance Company, supra, this court has addressed a situation with some features closely approximating those herein. In that case the injured party was also a salesman, albeit not of automobiles, who had left for his home at the end of a workday driving a car provided by his employer. He was employed under an oral contract which did not include the provision of transportation to and from work; he had a fixed place of work, did not intend to conduct business at home on the night of the accident, and was not engaged on a special mission for this employer or in any deliberate furtherance of its interests. We found that under those circumstances, the mere fact that the car was owned by the employer could not support the conclusion that Hall’s injuries had occurred in the course of his employment. See also, Hess v. Workman’s Compensation Appeal Board, 17 Pa.Cmwlth. 87, 329 A.2d 923 (1975).

The result in Hall serves to underscore two major difficulties with the instant case. As Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
595 A.2d 1150, 407 Pa. Super. 282, 1991 Pa. Super. LEXIS 2022, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hastings-v-pennsylvania-national-mutual-casualty-insurance-pasuperct-1991.