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Workers? Compensation denied for slip and fall injury suffered on the way to work

By Harvey Randall, Esq.

Workers? Compensation denied for slip and fall injury suffered on the way to work
Matter of Matthew Duffy v Taconic Correctional Facility, 41 A.D.3d 923, Appellate Division, Third Department

This case concerns an appeal from a decision of the Workers? Compensation Board, filed December 27, 2005, that held that Matthew Duffy had sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment.

Duffy, a correction officer, was transferred from the Riverview Correctional Facility in Jefferson County to the Taconic Correctional Facility in Dutchess County. Duffy secured housing at Correction?s Harlem Valley Housing Facility. The Department of Correctional Services controls and maintains Harlem Valley to provide housing to correction officers working in downstate correctional facilities.

On February 3, 2005, as he was walking toward his vehicle in the parking lot at Harlem Valley to drive to work at Taconic, Duffy slipped and fell, injuring his back. He submitted a claim for workers? compensation benefits, which Correction?s and its Workers? Compensation insurance company controverted.

Following a hearing, a Workers? Compensation Law Judge determined that Duffy?s injury arose out of and in the course of his employment, entitling him to benefits. The Workers? Compensation Board upheld this determination and Corrections and its carrier appealed.

The Appellate Division vacated the Workers? Compensation Board?s determination, holding that Duffy?s injury did not arise out of and in the course of his employment. The court said that:

Employees are generally not deemed to be acting within the scope of their employment while traveling to and from work, but exceptions exist where there is a sufficient nexus in time and place between the site of the accident and the employer?s premises.

One exception: employees who are required to live on the employer?s premises, either by virtue of the contract of employment or by reason of the nature of employment. However, such individuals are not in the same category as employees such as Duffy who are merely permitted to reside on the premises for their own convenience but who are not required to do so. Other exceptions: the employee is injured while traveling on business for the employer or the employee is injured while serving as an ?outside employee ? in contrast to working at one location.

Duffy and Corrections? representative both testified that Corrections did not require Duffy to reside at Harlem Valley but, in recognition of the difficulty in obtaining affordable housing in the area, Corrections made those accommodations available as an option for the convenience of its uniformed employees.

As Duffy was injured as he was preparing to travel from the dormitory apartment where he elected to reside to the correctional facility where he was permanently assigned to work, the Appellate Division ruled that ?This slip and fall was not work related as there was no nexus between the time and place of this accident and the employer?s premises so as to fit within the exception.?

In addition, the Appellate Division commented that ?the Board subsequently rendered a decision on nearly identical facts which directly contradicts its decision in this case,? citing Matter of New York State Dept. of Corrections, 2006 WL 2363827, [WCB No. 5050 1966, July 28, 2006.

For the full text of the opinion, go to:
http://nypublicpersonnellawarchives.blogspot.com/2007/06/workers-compensation-denied-for-slip.html

Full post as published by New York Public Personnel Law on March 25, 2008 (boomark / email).