Title: Miller v. IBM

State: vermont

Issuer: Vermont Supreme Court

Document:

MILLER_V_IBM.92-636; 161 Vt. 213; 637 A.2d 1072

[Filed 10-Dec-1993]

 NOTICE:  This opinion is subject to motions for reargument under V.R.A.P. 40
 as well as formal revision before publication in the Vermont Reports.
 Readers are requested to notify the Reporter of Decisions, Vermont Supreme
 Court, 109 State Street, Montpelier, Vermont 05609-0801 of any errors in
 order that corrections may be made before this opinion goes to press.


                                 No. 92-636


 David Miller                                 Supreme Court

                                              On Appeal from
      v.                                      Commissioner of Labor &
                                              Industry

 International Business Machines Corp.
 & Liberty Mutual Ins. Co.                    October Term, 1993


 Dana J. Cole-Levesque, Commissioner

 Beth DeBernardi and Roger E. Kohn of Kohn & Rath, Hinesburg, for
   plaintiff-appellee

 Keith J. Kasper of McCormick, Fitzpatrick & Mertz, P.C., Burlington, for
   defendant-appellant


 PRESENT:  Allen, C.J., Gibson, Dooley, Morse and Johnson, JJ.


      ALLEN, C.J.   The question certified in this appeal from a decision of
 the Commissioner of Labor and Industry is whether a workers' compensation
 claimant's injury arose out of and in the course of employment when it
 occurred as a result of an automobile accident on a private road, owned by
 the employer and providing access to its facilities, while the claimant was
 leaving the employer's premises during a lunch break.  The commissioner
 held that it did, and we affirm.
      The parties stipulated to certain facts in addition to those set forth
 in the certified question.  Plaintiff David Miller, the claimant, was
 injured on a road owned by defendant International Business Machines, Inc.
        
 

 (IBM), the employer, which provides access to the facilities where plaintiff
 worked.  IBM reserved the right to deny public access to the road, but
 opened the road to the public during working hours.  Plaintiff was not
 running an errand for his employer when the accident occurred.
      The prerequisites for a personal injury compensation claim are laid out
 in 21 V.S.A. { 618, which provides compensation to a worker injured by
 accident "arising out of and in the course of . . . employment by an
 employer subject to [workers' compensation laws]."  Thus, to have a
 compensable injury a claimant must prove both that the accident (1) arose
 out of the employment, and (2) occurred in the course of the employment.
      Until recently, the "arising out of" requirement demanded proof of a
 causal connection between the employment and the accident -- effectively, a
 showing of tort-type proximate causation.  See Rothfarb v. Camp Awanee,
 Inc., 116 Vt. 172, 176,