Supervisor's stop at restaurant before seminar blocks benefits claim

A New York Workers' Compensation Board panel held that a county supervisor's motor vehicle accident did not arise out of and in the course of his employment. The supervisor detoured from his route to stop for breakfast.

Case name: Oneida County - WPC, 108 NYWCLR 207 (N.Y.W.C.B. Panel 2008).

What it means: Where an employee is supposed to travel directly from his home to an off-premises work seminar, but instead travels in the opposite direction to have breakfast, his vehicular accident soon after leaving the restaurant is not within the course of his employment.

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Summary: On the date of the accident, the claimant was scheduled to attend a seminar off the employer's premises. The claimant was to go directly from his home to the seminar rather than reporting to his office. After he left home, the claimant went to a restaurant for breakfast, rather than traveling in the direction of the seminar. He was injured in a motor vehicle accident as he left the restaurant. In denying benefits, the panel reasoned that because the claimant's accident occurred when he was east of his home, it could not find that he was en route to the seminar, which was west of his home. The claimant was therefore on a personal errand when the accident occurred rather than within the course of his employment.

December 16, 2008

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