STATE OF LOUISIANA COURT OF APPEAL, THIRD CIRCUIT
03-1705
PROACTIVE THERAPY
VERSUS
YELLOW BOOK, USA
CONSOLIDATED WITH
JO LYNN DURAN
********** APPEAL FROM THE OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION - DISTRICT # 3 PARISH OF CALCASIEU, NO. 02-5631 C/W 02-6514 HONORABLE CHARLOTTE A. BUSHNELL WORKERS COMPENSATION JUDGE
********** JOHN B. SCOFIELD JUDGE **********
Court composed of Jimmie C. Peters, Michael G. Sullivan and John B. Scofield*, Judges.
AFFIRMED AS AMENDED.
Marcus Miller Zimmerman Attorney at Law 910 Ford St. Lake Charles, LA 70601 Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellee: Jo Lynn Duran Jeffrey C. Napolitano
* Honorable John B. Scofield participated in this decision by appointment of the Louisiana Supreme Court as Judge Pro Tempore. Randy J. Hoth Juge, Napolitano, Guilbeau, Ruli & Frieman 3838 N. Causeway Blvd., #2500 Metairie, LA 70002 Counsel for Defendants/Appellants: Yellow Book, USA and Chubb Group of Insurance Companies
David B. Green Woodley, Williams P. O. Box 3731 Lake Charles, LA 70602-3731 Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellee: Proactive Therapy SCOFIELD, Judge1.
Defendants, Yellow Book, USA and Chubb Group of Insurance Companies
(collectively referred to a Yellow Book), appeal a judgment of an Office of Workers’
Compensation Judge (OWCJ) in favor of Claimant, Jo Lynne Duran, finding she
suffered a compensable accident for which benefits are due, and in favor of Plaintiff,
Proactive Physical Therapy (Proactive), finding Proactive is entitled to payment for
treatment it rendered Ms. Duran following her accident. The OWCJ also awarded Ms.
Duran penalties and both Claimant and Plaintiff, attorneys’ fees. Defendants were
cast with interest and costs. Defendants appeal. Ms. Duran answered the appeal
seeking additional attorney’s fees for work necessitated by this appeal. Although
Proactive prays for additional attorney’s fees in brief, it neither appealed nor answered
Defendants’ appeal; thus its request is not properly before the court. We amend the
judgment of the OWCJ to award Ms. Duran $2,500.00 in additional attorney’s fees
and affirm the judgment as amended.
FACTS
Claimant, Jo Lynne Duran, was employed by Yellow Book as an account
executive whose responsibility was to sell advertisement to local businesses in the
Lake Charles area. On April 17, 2002, she went to work at about 8:30 a.m. Sometime
after 10:00 a.m. she departed to keep an appointment with her primary care physician,
Dr. Craig Broussard, and to call upon a client whose Yellow Book ad needed
clarification. While waiting at the doctors’ office Claimant continued to receive
business phone calls on her cellular phone. Upon checking out at the doctors’ office
she inquired of Dr. Broussard and another doctor in the office, Dr. Ron Lewis,
whether they had ads in the Yellow Book. Claimant then left the doctors’ office,
1 Honorable John B. Scofield participated in this decision by appointment of the Louisiana Supreme Court as Judge Pro Tempore. planning to meet a co-worker, Pam Tadlock, at the Yellow Book office. Claimant and
Ms. Tadlock had planned to go pick up lunch and bring it back to the Yellow Book
office for a working lunch. On the way back to the office, Claimant placed and
received additional business calls on her cellular telephone. As she attempted to turn
into the Yellow Book parking lot she was “broad-sided” by another motorist and
sustained serious injuries.
The OWCJ found that although Claimant had deviated from her employer’s
business when she stopped to see her personal physician, she had re-entered the course
and scope of her employment, if not when she asked the two doctors about Yellow
Book ads, certainly when she stared back toward the office, conducting telephone
business en route. Defendants appeal that determination and the award of penalties
and attorneys’ fees.
LAW AND DISCUSSION
On appeal, Defendants list five assignments of alleged error; however, those
assignments raise but two issues: 1) Was Claimant in the course and scope of her
employment at the time of the accident? and 2) Did the OWCJ err in awarding
penalties and/or attorneys’ fees?
Defendants argue that Claimant had deviated from the course and scope of her
employment to see her private physician and, at the time of the accident, she had not
yet returned to her employment as she was on her way to the office for lunch. The
OWCJ found that Claimant had returned to her employer’s business at the time of the
accident.
Here, the nature of Claimant’s work is a key element in analyzing whether the
accident in which she was involved occurred during the course and scope of her
employment. Claimant was a salesperson. She sold advertising space in the Yellow
Book. The evidence is undisputed that to perform her work, she regularly used her automobile and her cell phone. Her job was to communicate with people, meet with
them, and sell them advertising space. She used the telephone to make sales pitches,
to set up appointments with customers, to follow up on appointments, to receive
inquiries from customers and potential customers, and to trouble shoot customers’
problems. For the most part, the personal appointments with customers required her
to travel by automobile to the customer’s place of business or home. Claimant’s work
place, therefore, was by no means confined to the premises of her employer. The
spatial boundaries of her work were limited only by the range of her automobile or her
cell phone. It is fair to say that her work place easily encompassed the entire City of
Lake Charles.
The temporal aspects of her work are also significant to our analysis. While
Claimant’s stated work hours were from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., she testified that she
definitely was required at times to contact customers before normal work hours, after
work hours and during the noon hour. During her testimony she stated:
Well, like I said, it wouldn’t matter where we would be or if we were at per se lunch. Sometimes we didn’t get a lunch. If we got a phone call and a customer could see us, we – didn’t matter to us what time it was or where we were. We went.
The broad temporal and spatial expanses of Claimant’s work place were something
required of her by her employers.
On the day of her accident, Claimant did go to her doctor’s office which, in and
of itself, was a personal mission, a deviation from her employment. However, on the
way to the doctor’s appointment she went to a customer’s place of business to address
a mistake that had been made in preparing a proof of a proposed advertisement. After
her session with her doctor was completed, she made a sales pitch to her doctor and
another doctor in that office. On her way back to the Yellow Book offices, shortly
before the accident, Claimant was making sales related calls on her cell phone. The accident occurred while she was turning into her employer’s office to pick up a co-
worker and together they were going to buy some sandwiches and return to the office
for a working lunch, i.e., while eating they were going to be making sales calls on
their cell phones.
Some cases in our jurisprudence use the phrases “deviation from the work
place” and “re-entry into the work place” in determining if a workers’ compensation
claimant is in the course and scope of employment when injured.
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STATE OF LOUISIANA COURT OF APPEAL, THIRD CIRCUIT
03-1705
PROACTIVE THERAPY
VERSUS
YELLOW BOOK, USA
CONSOLIDATED WITH
JO LYNN DURAN
********** APPEAL FROM THE OFFICE OF WORKERS' COMPENSATION - DISTRICT # 3 PARISH OF CALCASIEU, NO. 02-5631 C/W 02-6514 HONORABLE CHARLOTTE A. BUSHNELL WORKERS COMPENSATION JUDGE
********** JOHN B. SCOFIELD JUDGE **********
Court composed of Jimmie C. Peters, Michael G. Sullivan and John B. Scofield*, Judges.
AFFIRMED AS AMENDED.
Marcus Miller Zimmerman Attorney at Law 910 Ford St. Lake Charles, LA 70601 Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellee: Jo Lynn Duran Jeffrey C. Napolitano
* Honorable John B. Scofield participated in this decision by appointment of the Louisiana Supreme Court as Judge Pro Tempore. Randy J. Hoth Juge, Napolitano, Guilbeau, Ruli & Frieman 3838 N. Causeway Blvd., #2500 Metairie, LA 70002 Counsel for Defendants/Appellants: Yellow Book, USA and Chubb Group of Insurance Companies
David B. Green Woodley, Williams P. O. Box 3731 Lake Charles, LA 70602-3731 Counsel for Plaintiff/Appellee: Proactive Therapy SCOFIELD, Judge1.
Defendants, Yellow Book, USA and Chubb Group of Insurance Companies
(collectively referred to a Yellow Book), appeal a judgment of an Office of Workers’
Compensation Judge (OWCJ) in favor of Claimant, Jo Lynne Duran, finding she
suffered a compensable accident for which benefits are due, and in favor of Plaintiff,
Proactive Physical Therapy (Proactive), finding Proactive is entitled to payment for
treatment it rendered Ms. Duran following her accident. The OWCJ also awarded Ms.
Duran penalties and both Claimant and Plaintiff, attorneys’ fees. Defendants were
cast with interest and costs. Defendants appeal. Ms. Duran answered the appeal
seeking additional attorney’s fees for work necessitated by this appeal. Although
Proactive prays for additional attorney’s fees in brief, it neither appealed nor answered
Defendants’ appeal; thus its request is not properly before the court. We amend the
judgment of the OWCJ to award Ms. Duran $2,500.00 in additional attorney’s fees
and affirm the judgment as amended.
FACTS
Claimant, Jo Lynne Duran, was employed by Yellow Book as an account
executive whose responsibility was to sell advertisement to local businesses in the
Lake Charles area. On April 17, 2002, she went to work at about 8:30 a.m. Sometime
after 10:00 a.m. she departed to keep an appointment with her primary care physician,
Dr. Craig Broussard, and to call upon a client whose Yellow Book ad needed
clarification. While waiting at the doctors’ office Claimant continued to receive
business phone calls on her cellular phone. Upon checking out at the doctors’ office
she inquired of Dr. Broussard and another doctor in the office, Dr. Ron Lewis,
whether they had ads in the Yellow Book. Claimant then left the doctors’ office,
1 Honorable John B. Scofield participated in this decision by appointment of the Louisiana Supreme Court as Judge Pro Tempore. planning to meet a co-worker, Pam Tadlock, at the Yellow Book office. Claimant and
Ms. Tadlock had planned to go pick up lunch and bring it back to the Yellow Book
office for a working lunch. On the way back to the office, Claimant placed and
received additional business calls on her cellular telephone. As she attempted to turn
into the Yellow Book parking lot she was “broad-sided” by another motorist and
sustained serious injuries.
The OWCJ found that although Claimant had deviated from her employer’s
business when she stopped to see her personal physician, she had re-entered the course
and scope of her employment, if not when she asked the two doctors about Yellow
Book ads, certainly when she stared back toward the office, conducting telephone
business en route. Defendants appeal that determination and the award of penalties
and attorneys’ fees.
LAW AND DISCUSSION
On appeal, Defendants list five assignments of alleged error; however, those
assignments raise but two issues: 1) Was Claimant in the course and scope of her
employment at the time of the accident? and 2) Did the OWCJ err in awarding
penalties and/or attorneys’ fees?
Defendants argue that Claimant had deviated from the course and scope of her
employment to see her private physician and, at the time of the accident, she had not
yet returned to her employment as she was on her way to the office for lunch. The
OWCJ found that Claimant had returned to her employer’s business at the time of the
accident.
Here, the nature of Claimant’s work is a key element in analyzing whether the
accident in which she was involved occurred during the course and scope of her
employment. Claimant was a salesperson. She sold advertising space in the Yellow
Book. The evidence is undisputed that to perform her work, she regularly used her automobile and her cell phone. Her job was to communicate with people, meet with
them, and sell them advertising space. She used the telephone to make sales pitches,
to set up appointments with customers, to follow up on appointments, to receive
inquiries from customers and potential customers, and to trouble shoot customers’
problems. For the most part, the personal appointments with customers required her
to travel by automobile to the customer’s place of business or home. Claimant’s work
place, therefore, was by no means confined to the premises of her employer. The
spatial boundaries of her work were limited only by the range of her automobile or her
cell phone. It is fair to say that her work place easily encompassed the entire City of
Lake Charles.
The temporal aspects of her work are also significant to our analysis. While
Claimant’s stated work hours were from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m., she testified that she
definitely was required at times to contact customers before normal work hours, after
work hours and during the noon hour. During her testimony she stated:
Well, like I said, it wouldn’t matter where we would be or if we were at per se lunch. Sometimes we didn’t get a lunch. If we got a phone call and a customer could see us, we – didn’t matter to us what time it was or where we were. We went.
The broad temporal and spatial expanses of Claimant’s work place were something
required of her by her employers.
On the day of her accident, Claimant did go to her doctor’s office which, in and
of itself, was a personal mission, a deviation from her employment. However, on the
way to the doctor’s appointment she went to a customer’s place of business to address
a mistake that had been made in preparing a proof of a proposed advertisement. After
her session with her doctor was completed, she made a sales pitch to her doctor and
another doctor in that office. On her way back to the Yellow Book offices, shortly
before the accident, Claimant was making sales related calls on her cell phone. The accident occurred while she was turning into her employer’s office to pick up a co-
worker and together they were going to buy some sandwiches and return to the office
for a working lunch, i.e., while eating they were going to be making sales calls on
their cell phones.
Some cases in our jurisprudence use the phrases “deviation from the work
place” and “re-entry into the work place” in determining if a workers’ compensation
claimant is in the course and scope of employment when injured.
Deviation occurs when an employee, after having entered the work place, leaves
or turns aside to do something personal or not work related. An injury occurring
during the time of this deviation is generally not considered work related and,
therefore, is not compensable under the workers’ compensation laws. In Timmons v.
Silman, 99-3264 (La. 5/16/00), 761 So.2d 507, the court ruled that an employee, Ms.
Silman, who had gone to the post office to refill a postage meter for her employer was
not within the course and scope of her employment when she was involved in an
automobile accident. At the time of the accident, Ms. Silman was on her way to a
bank, some 18 blocks in the opposite direction past her employers’ business to cash
her Christmas bonus check. See also Hoy v. Gilbert, 98-1565 (La.3/2/99), 754 So.2d
207.
Our courts also recognize that once one has deviated from his or her
employment, it is possible to re-enter the work place. If an employee is injured after
returning to the work place or re-entering the work place, our courts will generally
consider the injury to be work related and the employee is entitled to the benefits of
the workers’ compensation laws. For instance, in Belt v. State Through Louisiana
Board of Cosmetology, 493 So.2d 278, 285 (La.App. 3rd Cir.), writ denied, 496 So.2d
1044 (La.1986) this court stated:
It is well established in our law that where there is a temporary deviation from the course of employment to engage in purely personal business, such an employee re-enters his employment and the scope thereof when he has completed his private mission and turned toward the direction of the employment destination for the purpose of discharging his employment duties. Simmons v. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, 185 So.2d 822 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1966); Campbell v. Baker, Culpepper & Brunson, 382 So.2d 1046 (La.App. 2nd Cir.1980) writ refused, 385 So.2d 793 (La.1980).
In the case at hand, Claimant did deviate during the twenty minutes or so that
she was conferring with Doctor Broussard. However, given the nature of Claimant’s
work and the entire scope of her actions on the morning of her accident, we consider
this deviation to be slight and of a very short duration. She was in the course of her
employment just prior to the appointment with her doctor and was so just afterward.
In fact, the nature of her work was such that she could very well have received a cell
phone call from a customer during her session with Dr. Broussard and she could have
been within the course and scope of her employment during her actual conference
with the doctor.
In Ray v. City of New Orleans, 03-1484, pp. 1-2 (La.App. 4 Cir. 2/4/04), 867
So.2d 783, 785, our colleagues of the fourth circuit reminded us of the following:
The issue of whether . . . [Claimant's] injury occurred within the course and scope of his employment is a factual determination. Factual findings of a hearing officer may not be disturbed by an appellate court unless the factual findings are manifestly erroneous or clearly wrong. Hulbert v. Boh Bros., 99-1187, p. 4 (La.App. 4 Cir. 1/5/00), 751 So.2d 994, 997. In order for an appellate court to set aside a hearing officer's factual finding, the appellate court must conclude from the record, viewed in its entirety, that a reasonable factual basis did not exist for the hearing officer's finding and that this finding is clearly wrong. Id. Thus, even though an appellate court may feel that its own evaluations and inferences are more reasonable than the factfinder's, reasonable evaluations of credibility and reasonable inferences of fact should not be disturbed upon review where conflict exists in the testimony. Id.
In the case before us, the record establishes that Claimant’s job required her to
spend considerable time both on the telephone and outside of the office contacting
clients and prospective clients. She had engaged in both activities on the day of her accident. While she had deviated from her duties to keep a medical appointment, we
cannot say the OWCJ was clearly wrong in finding that Claimant had re-entered the
course and scope of her employment before her accident. Upon leaving her doctor’s
office she headed back to the Yellow Book office and made and received business
telephone calls on her cellular telephone along the way.
Appellants also argue that the OWCJ erred in awarding penalties to Claimant
and attorneys’ fees to both Claimant and Proactive Therapy. In George v. Guillory,
00-591, p. 9 (La.App. 3 Cir. 11/2/00), 776 So .2d 1200,1207, this court stated:
The determination of whether an employer or insurer should be cast with penalties and attorneys fees is essentially a question of fact, and the workers' compensation judge's finding shall not be disturbed on appeal absent manifest error. Wiltz v. Baudin's Sausage Kitchen, 99-930 (La.App. 3 Cir. 6/19/00); 763 So.2d 111. Under La.R.S. 23:1201, sanctions, in the form of penalties and attorneys fees, are available when workers' compensation benefits are not provided as required by law. See Clifton v. Rapides Reg'l Med. Ctr., 96-509 (La.App. 3 Cir. 10/9/96); 689 So.2d 471.
Appellants contend that since Claimant’s primary reason for leaving her office
was to engage in a personal mission, they were not arbitrary and capricious in denying
benefits and should not be cast for penalties and attorneys’ fees. However, this
argument ignores the doctrine of re-entry which states that an employee who deviates
from the course and scope of her employment is only outside the scope of her
employment until such time as the employee returns to the route of the business trip.
See Belt, 493 So.2d 278; See also Timmons, 761 So.2d 507 and Authement v. Shappert
Engineering, 02-1631 (La. 2/25/03), 840 So.2d 1181. Accordingly, we find no clear
error in the OWCJ’s award of penalties and attorneys’ fees.
As noted earlier, Claimant, Jo Lynn Duran, answered Appellants’ appeal
seeking additional attorney’s fees for work necessitated by Appellants’ appeal. An
award for attorney fees for work done on appeal is warranted when the appeal has
necessitated additional work on the attorney's part. Colonial Nursing Home v. Bradford, 02-588 (La.App. 3 Cir. 12/30/02), 834 So.2d 1262, writ denied, 03-364
(La.4/21/03), 841 So.2d 802. Considering Claimant’s attorney had to do additional
legal research, prepare a brief and orally argue the case before this court, we find an
additional award of $2,500.00 is reasonable under these circumstances.
Accordingly, for the reasons stated, we amend the judgment of the OWCJ to
increase the Claimant’s attorney’s fees by $2,500.00; in all other respects the
judgment is affirmed. All costs of this appeal are taxed against Appellants.