Mondragon v. A & L Reforestation, Inc.

939 P.2d 1384, 130 Idaho 305, 1997 Ida. LEXIS 86
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 8, 1997
DocketNo. 22169
StatusPublished

This text of 939 P.2d 1384 (Mondragon v. A & L Reforestation, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mondragon v. A & L Reforestation, Inc., 939 P.2d 1384, 130 Idaho 305, 1997 Ida. LEXIS 86 (Idaho 1997).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Justice.

This is a workers’ compensation case. We conclude: (1) there is substantial and competent evidence to support the finding of the Industrial Commission (the Commission) that the employee’s death did not arise out of the course and scope of his employment, (2) the Commission correctly applied the dual purpose doctrine, and (3) the Commission was correct in refusing to apply the remote work site doctrine.

I.

THE BACKGROUND AND PRIOR PROCEEDINGS

A & L Reforestation, Inc. (the employer), a Boise business, plants trees under contract with the U.S. Forest Service. In May 1993, Trinidad Mondragon (the employee), a fourteen-year employee of the employer, was the lead foreman at a tree planting site a few miles up the South Fork of the Payette River from Lowman. The employee resided at the camp site (the camp site) in a trailer and had a company vehicle at his disposal. As lead foreman, the employee was responsible for maintaining the equipment and providing the basic necessities for the crew. The employee’s supervisor (the supervisor), who was also vice-president of the employer, testified that the employee would take the crew members to the South Fork Lodge (the lodge) in Low-man to buy groceries and get gas for their vehicles.

In mid-May 1993, the employee and his crew were preparing to leave for another job in southern Utah. In anticipation of this move, the supervisor asked the employee to meet him at the lodge sometime between 8:30 and 11:00 p.m. to discuss the upcoming trip. The meeting time was left indefinite because the supervisor was going to be returning from Boise with some equipment. The supervisor testified that he expected the employee to wait at the lodge until 2:00 a.m., if necessary.

At approximately 8:00 p.m. on May 16, 1993, the employee and two of his crew members (the two crew members) arrived at the lodge in a car (the car) belonging to one of the two crew members. The employee ordered and paid for one beer each for himself and the two crew members. Shortly after arriving, the employee and the two crew members became involved in an argument with three men from Boise. The bartender immediately ordered the three men from Boise out of the bar, and they left without further incident.

After the three men from Boise left, the bar manager came into the bar and began talking with the employee. At this point, the evening’s events become somewhat contested. According to the bartender, the bar manager was angry because the bartender had ejected the three men from Boise. The bar manager told the employee he could not drink anymore at the lodge. The bartender testified that the employee kept talking with the bar manager in an attempt to persuade the bar manager to allow the employee and the two crew members to have another beer. The employee also bought two or three rounds for the house totaling approximately fifty dollars, apparently in an unsuccessful attempt to regain drinking privileges for himself and the two crew members. In his testimony, the bar manager rejected the characterization of his exchange with the employee as a disagreement, stating that he was trying to stop the employee from buying drinks for the house because he did not want the employee spending money on some “prejudiced people” in the bar. The Commission [307]*307found that the bar manager’s testimony lacked credibility, noting that his story had changed over time.

At approximately 9:00 p.m. on May 16, 1998, the employee and his crew members left the lodge without buying more beer. The bartender testified that the employee finished drinking his beer, while the two crew members left their glasses full. Another witness testified that neither the employee nor the two crew members drank their beer. There is also conflicting testimony concerning the employee’s attitude when he left the bar and his statements concerning when he would return to the lodge. Although the bartender thought the employee was upset about not being served, the bar manager testified that the employee was in a good mood. According to the bartender, the employee’s words on leaving were, “I’ll leave and I’ll be coming back.” Another witness testified that the employee’s parting words were that he would see them tomorrow.

The employee and the two crew members left in the car, with the employee in the passenger seat. Approximately half an hour later, a man came into the lodge stating that he thought a car had gone oft the road into the river. Law enforcement officers and a search party found skid marks and other evidence of an accident approximately two miles up the river from Lowman, in the direction of the camp site and two other businesses which sold beer. The law enforcement officers estimated from the skid marks that the car had been traveling approximately eighty miles an hour, which was thirty-five miles per hour over the speed limit, when it went off the road.

Searchers recovered the body of one of the two crew members on June 5, 1993, fifty miles down the Payette River. The next day the car was found and retrieved, with the body of the second of the two crew members inside. The employee’s body has never been recovered.

The employee’s widow, on behalf of herself and the employee’s five minor children (the claimants), filed a workers’ compensation claim for the employee’s death. At the original hearing, the issues were limited to whether the employee was deceased and whether the accident occurred within the course and scope of his employment. The referee found that the employee died in the accident, but that the accident was not within the course and scope of his employment. The referee concluded that when the accident occurred the employee and the two crew members were on their way to purchase alcohol, a personal errand which constituted a significant departure from his initial business purpose for going to the lodge. By a two to one vote, the Commission adopted the referee’s findings and conclusions. The claimants appealed.

While this Court had the appeal under advisement, the claimants filed a motion for suspension of the appeal and for a temporary remand to allow the Commission to consider granting claimants the opportunity to reopen the case to present newly discovered evidence in the form of testimony by a helicopter mechanic (the mechanic) who was in the area on the night of the accident. We granted this motion, suspending the appeal during the remand, with reinstatement of the appeal to occur following the filing of an order from the Commission.

The Commission granted the motion to reopen the case to consider the testimony of the mechanic concerning whether the employee’s death was caused by an injury arising out of and in the course of his employment. At the reopened hearing the mechanic testified that on May 16, 1998, he was in the bar at the lodge and saw the employee and the two crew members when they arrived. The mechanic stated that the entire time the employee and the two crew members were in the bar, it was quiet and no one raised their voice. He testified that he left the bar shortly after the employee and the two crew members left and saw them get in the car. He said he saw them drive toward the front of the lodge where some gasoline pumps were located. He stated the he saw the employee and the two crew members standing next to the car by the pumps with seven or eight individuals he believed to be other employees of the employer. These other individuals had two pickup trucks and a van. The mechanic testified that he spoke very briefly with the [308]

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Bluebook (online)
939 P.2d 1384, 130 Idaho 305, 1997 Ida. LEXIS 86, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mondragon-v-a-l-reforestation-inc-idaho-1997.