Lanoue v. All Star Chevrolet

867 So. 2d 755, 2003 WL 22515643
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 7, 2003
Docket2003 CA 0012
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 867 So. 2d 755 (Lanoue v. All Star Chevrolet) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lanoue v. All Star Chevrolet, 867 So. 2d 755, 2003 WL 22515643 (La. Ct. App. 2003).

Opinion

867 So.2d 755 (2003)

Stephanie LANOUE
v.
ALL STAR CHEVROLET.

No. 2003 CA 0012.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

November 7, 2003.

*756 Vijay Venkataraman, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Plaintiff-Appellant Stephanie Lanoue.

Robert D. Hoover, Matthew W. Tierney, Baton Rouge, Counsel for Defendant-Appellee All Star Chevrolet, Inc.

Before: CARTER, C.J., PARRO, and GUIDRY, JJ.

*757 GUIDRY, J.

A claimant appeals a judgment of the Office of Workers' Compensation Administration (OWC) denying her benefits for failure to prove that she sustained a work-related injury. After careful consideration of the facts and the governing law, we reverse, render in part and remand in part with instructions.

FACTS AND PROCEDURAL HISTORY

The claimant, Stephanie Lanoue, filed a disputed claim for compensation against her employer, All Star Chevrolet, Inc., for failing to pay her workers' compensation benefits relative to an injury she sustained on January 17, 2002. The claimant was employed as a new car salesperson. In her petition, the claimant described her injury as stemming from the collision of a company-owned golf cart with a plate glass window while she was holding onto the golf cart. As a result of the collision, the claimant sustained lacerations and a fracture to her left arm.

All Star Chevrolet denied liability for the claimant's injury. In its answer, All Star Chevrolet averred, "that the accident and injury occurred as a result of a purely personal favor which the claimant was doing for another sales representative while babysitting her children." Following a hearing, the workers' compensation judge (WCJ) rendered judgment in favor of All Star Chevrolet, dismissing the claimant's disputed claim with prejudice. It is from this judgment that the claimant appeals.

APPLICABLE LAW

In order to recover workers' compensation benefits, the claimant must establish that she received a personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of her employment. La. R.S. 23:1031(A). The terms "arising out of" and "in the course of" constitute a dual requirement. Guillory v. Interstate Gas Station, 94-1767, p. 3 (La.3/30/95), 653 So.2d 1152, 1154.

When considering the "arising out of" employment requirement, the court inquires into the character or origin of the risk suffered by the employee and determines whether this risk was incidental to the employment. Pitts v. Helmrich & Payne Drilling, 98-1345, p. 4 (La.App. 1st Cir.6/25/99), 739 So.2d 335, 337, writ denied, 99-2194 (La.11/5/99), 750 So.2d 187. An accident arises out of employment if the conditions or obligations of the employment caused the employee in the course of employment to be at the place of the accident at the time the accident occurred. Clement v. Dynasty Transportation, 98-2377, p. 5 (La.App. 1st Cir.12/28/99), 756 So.2d 377, 381. An accident also arises out of employment if the risk for which the injury resulted was greater for the employee than for a person not engaged in the employment. Lewis v. Houma Industries, 01-0641, pp. 3-4 (La. App. 1st Cir.5/10/02), 818 So.2d 956, 958.

An accident occurs in the course of employment when the employee sustains an injury while actively engaged in the performance of his duties during work hours, either on the employer's premises or at other places where employment activities take the employee. McLin v. Industrial Specialty Contractors, Inc., 02-1539, p. 4 (La.7/2/03), 851 So.2d 1135, 1140. A WCJ's determination regarding the arising out of and in the course of employment inquiries is subject to the manifest error standard of review. Lewis, 01-0641 at 4, 818 So.2d at 958.

DISCUSSION

At issue in this appeal is whether the claimant's conduct, at the time of her *758 accident, can be construed as "arising out of and in the course of" her employment, thereby justifying recovery of workers' compensation benefits. The claimant argues that at the time of the accident, she had driven All Star Chevrolet's golf cart to the dealership showroom in response to a page from the receptionist notifying her that she had a phone call. She admitted at the hearing that she did not know if the page was for a personal or business phone call. At the hearing, the claimant testified that she was "returning to the showroom to park the golf cart in the front of the showroom so [she] could go in and answer the phone." When she arrived at the showroom, she engaged the lock on the golf cart, got out of the vehicle, and then took her co-worker's son out of the golf cart. As she was reaching to take her co-worker's daughter out of the golf cart, the little girl accidentally stepped on the accelerator, which caused the vehicle to lurch forward. The claimant was injured because she was grasping the frame of the golf cart when it collided with the plate glass window of the showroom. The claimant testified that she was driving her co-worker's children in the golf cart so that her co-worker could focus attention on a customer.

In Walker v. Acadian Builders of Gonzales, Inc., 99-0297 (La.App. 1st Cir.5/19/00), 797 So.2d 690, this court reversed a summary judgment in favor of the employer finding that the decedent-employee's death was not work-related. In that case, this court noted:

an employee is not relegated to twiddling his thumbs for the entire time that he is on stand-by. As long as the act is not entirely unreasonable and could be expected of an ordinary human being, the employee is not outside of the scope of his work. Moreover, accidents that occur during periods of rest and relaxation are normally regarded as transpiring in the course of the employment. Personal activities such as: getting fresh air, smoking, resting, eating food or a snack, drinking, including water, beer or wine, taking a bath provided by the employer, using a telephone or a toilet, stair or elevator, and washing work clothes, have been classified as in the course of employment.

Walker, 99-0297 At 4-5, 797 So.2d at 693 (citations omitted).

In reviewing the "arising out of" requirement, the evidence in the record indicates that the reason the claimant was at the place of the accident at the time the accident occurred was because she had been paged by the dealership receptionist to receive a phone call. We place no importance on the fact that it is not known whether the phone call was business-related or not. See Walker, 99-0297 at 4, 797 So.2d at 693. What is clear is that the claimant would not have been at the place of the accident, i.e., in front of the dealership showroom, had the receptionist not paged her to receive a phone call. The WCJ clearly erred in failing to find that the claimant's employment, as demonstrated by her responding to the page from the dealership receptionist, did not obligate her to be at the place of the accident at the time the accident occurred, thus causing the subject accident to "arise" out of her employment.

Likewise, we find that the WCJ manifestly erred in failing to find that the claimant's accident occurred in the course of her employment with All Star Chevrolet. On questioning by the WCJ, the claimant stated that her primary job duty was to "sell new cars to customers." She admitted that had a customer needed her attention, she would have taken the children back to their parents[1] so that she *759 could attend to the customer.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
867 So. 2d 755, 2003 WL 22515643, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lanoue-v-all-star-chevrolet-lactapp-2003.