Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. Industrial Accident Commission

239 Cal. App. 2d 533, 48 Cal. Rptr. 758, 31 Cal. Comp. Cases 24, 1966 Cal. App. LEXIS 1792
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 24, 1966
DocketCiv. 29392
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 239 Cal. App. 2d 533 (Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. Industrial Accident Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Westinghouse Electric Corp. v. Industrial Accident Commission, 239 Cal. App. 2d 533, 48 Cal. Rptr. 758, 31 Cal. Comp. Cases 24, 1966 Cal. App. LEXIS 1792 (Cal. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

ROTH, P. J.

This is a proceeding to review an order of the Industrial Accident Commission holding an employee entitled to compensation for injuries sustained in an automobile accident which occurred while he was traveling to work.

*534 Virgil C. Blanchard, Jr., an employee of petitioner Westinghonse Electric Corporation, was injured in an automobile accident while driving from his home to work at a job site located at 9300 Wilshire Boulevard in the city of Beverly Hills. Transportation to and from work was not furnished by the employer, and it exercised no control over the means of transportation or route chosen by the employee. The employee was not compensated or entitled to be compensated for the time required to travel to and from work. He was, however, paid carfare of 60 cents per day pursuant to a contract between his union and employer. The contract contained a clause entitled “Traveling Time and Expense” which provided for the payment of allowances for travel and/or expense depending upon the location of the job site. In Zone A, an area within a 5-mile radius of the Los Angeles City Hall, employees were required to pay the traveling expense. In Zone 1, an area within a 10-mile radius, wherein the job site in the present case was located, employees were entitled to 60 cents “round trip” travel expense per day. In zones covering greater distances, provision was made for higher allowances for travel expense and in some instances for allowances for travel time as well. Blanchard was reimbursed $2.40 carfare for the week in which the accident occurred, and no control was exercised by his employer over the use of the money he was so paid.

Petitioner contends that since the accident occurred while Blanchard was going to work, his injuries did not arise out of and in the course of his employment. On the other hand, Blanchard contends that inasmuch as he was paid carfare or a specified amount for travel expense, his employment embraced the time he was en route to work.

The established rules which govern the compensability of injuries sustained by an employee while going to or returning home from work are set forth in Kobe v. Industrial Acc. Com., 35 Cal.2d 33, 35 [215 P.2d 736], as follows: “It is the general rule that injuries sustained by an employee going to or returning from work are not compensable under the Workmen’s Compensation Act. The 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. (California Cas. Indem. Exch. v. Industrial Acc. Com., 21 Cal.2d 751, 754 [135 P.2d 158].) However, the employer may agree, either expressly or impliedly, that the relationship shall continue during the *535 period of ‘going and coming,’ in which case the employee is entitled to the protection of the act during that period. Such an agreement may be inferred from the fact that the employer furnishes transportation to and from work as an incident of the employment. (California Gas. Indem. Exch. v. Industrial Acc. Com., 21 Cal.2d 461 [132 P.2d 815]; Trussless Roof Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com., 119 Cal.App. 91 [6 P.2d 254]; cf. Breland v. Traylor Eng. etc. Co., 52 Cal.App.2d 415 [126 P.2d 455].) . . . [S]uch an agreement may also be inferred from the fact that the employer compensates the employee for the time consumed in traveling to and from work.”

An agreement that the employment relationship shall continue during the period of travel to and from work cannot be inferred, however, from the mere fact that the employer pays the cost of public transportation or an amount for travel expense which is not paid in lieu of or as a means of discharging a contractual obligation to furnish transportation. In Cardillo v. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., 330 U.S. 469, 482 [67 S.Ct. 801, 91 L.Ed. 1028], the court stated, “To be sure, there are many holdings to the effect that, where the employer merely pays the costs of transportation, an injury occurring during the journey does not arise out of and in the course of the employment; there must be something more than mere payment of transportation costs.” The same view was expressed by the California Supreme Court in Smith v. Industrial Acc. Com., 18 Cal.2d 843, 847 [118 P.2d 6], as follows: “It also may be pointed out that the fact that the employer reimbursed the employee for his fare on the ferry from tile island to San Francisco would not of itself cause the injury to arise out of the course of employment. The payment to the employee of the cost of public transportation to and from his place of residence to the place of work does not ordinarily in itself, furnish a basis for concluding that an injury sustained during such transportation arose out of the course of employment.” Trussless Roof Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com., 119 Cal.App. 91, 94 [6 P.2d 254], also recognizes that payment of travel expense is not the equivalent of furnishing transportation. In discussing the requirement that a vehicle be within the control of the employer as a rationale for the rule that injuries are compensable when transportation is furnished by the employer, the court stated: “We doubt if this requirement goes further than to distinguish between public means of travel paid for by the employer and that privately furnished by him. In the case of public transporta *536 tion, there is no liability under the rule which we find governs here.” And, in Orsinie v. Torrance, 96 Conn. 352 [113 A. 924], the court distinguished the payment of travel expense from the furnishing of transportation by stating, “The fact that because of the location of the work this wage included a sum measured by the cost of transportation by trolley to and from the work is of no more significance than if it included a sum measured by the additional cost of food at that place.”

In the present case, the employer did not, and was not obligated to, compensate the employee for the time consumed in travel. It was so stipulated by the parties, and the union contract expressly distinguished between the payment of “travel expense” as in this case and the payment of “travel time” provided for in other situations. The employer likewise did not, and was not obligated to, furnish transportation.

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239 Cal. App. 2d 533, 48 Cal. Rptr. 758, 31 Cal. Comp. Cases 24, 1966 Cal. App. LEXIS 1792, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/westinghouse-electric-corp-v-industrial-accident-commission-calctapp-1966.