McLin v. Industrial Specialty Contractors, Inc.

818 So. 2d 947, 2001 La.App. 1 Cir. 0830, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 1336, 2002 WL 960242
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 10, 2002
DocketNo. 2001 CA 0830
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 818 So. 2d 947 (McLin v. Industrial Specialty Contractors, Inc.) 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
McLin v. Industrial Specialty Contractors, Inc., 818 So. 2d 947, 2001 La.App. 1 Cir. 0830, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 1336, 2002 WL 960242 (La. Ct. App. 2002).

Opinions

| .PARRO, J.

Chad McLin appeals a judgment in favor of his former employer, Industrial Specialty Contractors, Inc. (ISC), and its insurer, CNA Insurance Companies (CNA), finding his injuries did not arise out of and in the course of his employment and dismissing his claim for workers’ compensation benefits. We affirm.

FACTUAL AND PROCEDURAL BACKGROUND

The facts of this case are not disputed. McLin was employed by ISC as an electrician and was assigned to work at the BASF plant in Geismar, Louisiana. On February 17, 2000, McLin was required to attend a safety meeting at ISC’s office on Highland Road in Baton Rouge. The meeting was held after regular working hours, from 6 p.m. until 8 p.m., and although the meeting was mandatory, the participating employees were not paid for the time spent in this meeting. McLin left BASF about 5 p.m., drove to the meeting in his own car, and attended the meeting. When he left the meeting, McLin drove directly toward his home, using a route that was different from his normal travel pattern. He was involved in an automobile accident several blocks from his home at the intersection of Sherwood Forest Boulevard and Florida Boulevard in Baton Rouge. He went back to work for one day, but could not perform his job due to severe back pain; he was eventually diagnosed as having a ruptured lumbar disc. McLin’s injuries prevented him from doing his pre-accident work duties, so ISC terminated his employment. ISC contended the accident did not happen during the course and scope of McLin’s employment, therefore it did not pay him workers’ compensation benefits and did not pay his medical bills.

On May 11, 2000, McLin filed a disputed claim for compensation.2 McLin claimed he was injured in an automobile accident while going home from a mandatory meeting, and sought wage benefits and payment of medical bills from ISC. ISC and CNA answered, denying that McLin was in the course and scope of his employment at the time of his alleged injury. A trial was held on January 24, 2001, with workers’ ^compensation judge Pamela Moses-Laramore (the WCJ) presiding. At the conclusion of the trial, the WCJ found that McLin was not in the course and scope of his employment when he was injured, and dismissed his claims with prejudice.3 In [950]*950this appeal, McLin challenges that finding and also requests an award of penalties and attorney fees for the defendants’ refusal to pay his claims.

COURSE AND SCOPE OF EMPLOYMENT

An employee’s personal injury is compensable under the Workers’ Compensation Act only if it results from an accident “arising out of and in the course of his employment.” LSA-R.S. 23:1031; Harvey v. Bogalusa Concrete, Inc., 97-2945 (La.App. 1st Cir.9/25/98), 719 So.2d 1130, 1131. The Louisiana Supreme Court has considered the terms “arising out of’ and “in the course of’ in Section 1031 as dual requirements that cannot be considered in isolation from each other. In a close case, a strong showing with reference to one requirement may compensate for a weak showing with reference to the other requirement. Benoit v. Capitol Mfg. Co., 617 So.2d 477, 479 (La.1993). When there is a weak showing with respect to both requirements, the employee is not entitled to compensation benefits. Raybol v. Louisiana State Univ., 520 So.2d 724, 726 (La.1988).

To evaluate the “course of employment” requirement, the court focuses on whether the employee sustains an injury while actively engaged in the performance of his duties during working hours, either on the employer’s premises or at a place contemplated by employment activities. Mundy v. Dep’t of Health & Human Resources, 593 So.2d 346, 349 (La.1992). This inquiry focuses on the time and place relationship between the injury and the employment. Williams v. Regional Transit Authority, 546 So.2d 150, 161 (La.1989). 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. Williams, 546 So.2d at 159. An injury arises out of employment if the risk from which the injury resulted was greater for the employee than for a person not engaged in the employment. Weber v. State, 93-0062 (La.4/11/94), 635 So.2d 188, 192 n. 5; Pitts v. Helmrich & Payne Drilling, 98-1345 (La.App. 1st Cir.6/25/99), 739 So.2d 335, 337, writ denied, 99-2194 (La.11/5/99), 750 So.2d 187.

Generally, accidents which occur while an employee is traveling to and from work are not considered as having occurred during the course of employment. This rule is premised on the theory that ordinarily, the employment relationship is suspended from the time the employee leaves his work to go home until he resumes his work. However, this rule has been subject to a number of jurispruden-tially established exceptions. Lorraine v. Nolty J. Theriot, Inc., 98-0479 (La.App. 1st Cir.4/1/99), 729 So.2d 1160, 1163, writ denied, 99-1251 (La.6/18/99), 745 So.2d 30. Some of these are as follows: 1) if the accident happened on the employer’s premises; 2) if the employee was deemed to be on a specific mission for the employer, such as making a trip in the interest of his employer’s business or pursuant to his employer’s order; 3) if the employer had interested himself in the transportation of [951]*951the employee as an incident to the employment agreement either by contractually providing transportation or reimbursing the employee for his travel expenses; 4) if the employee was doing work for his employer under circumstances where the employer’s consent could be fairly implied; 5) if the employee was hurt while traveling to and from one work site to another; 6) if the employee was injured while in an area immediately adjacent to his place of employment and that area contained a distinct travel risk to the employee, also known as the threshold doctrine; and 7) if the operation of a motor vehicle was the performance of one of the duties of the employment of the employee. See Brown v. Coastal Const. & Engineering, Inc., 96-2705 (La.App. 1st Cir.11/7/97), 704 So.2d 8, 10, and cases cited therein.

|BIn this case, McLin’s accident happened while he was traveling home from work and would not generally be considered as having occurred during the course of his employment with ISC. Given the facts of this case, the only possible exception among those recognized by the jurisprudence and the only exception urged by McLin is that he was involved in a specific mission for the employer, in that he was required to make the trip to and from the Highland Road office pursuant to his employer’s order and in the interest of his employer’s business. McLin asserts in this appeal that the WCJ misinterpreted this court’s case, Johnson v. Wallace Indus. Constructors, 224 So.2d 31 (La.App. 1st Cir.), writ denied sub nom. Keller v. Wallace Indus. Constructors, 254 La. 782, 226 So.2d 771 (1969).

In Johnson, the court summarized the facts as follows:

The duties of Mr. Johnson’s job required that he go to New Orleans on a special mission. They likewise required that he be on the job site at Taft by 6:30 a.m. on the day following his trip to New Orleans. He was in a company car, issued to him for the purpose of making the trip. When last seen, he was about to embark on a mission of his own. His whereabouts and activities were unknown between 1:00 a.m. and 5:20 a.m.

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Related

McLin v. Industrial Specialty Contractors
851 So. 2d 1135 (Supreme Court of Louisiana, 2003)

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818 So. 2d 947, 2001 La.App. 1 Cir. 0830, 2002 La. App. LEXIS 1336, 2002 WL 960242, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mclin-v-industrial-specialty-contractors-inc-lactapp-2002.