Source: https://wcc.state.ct.us/crb/2007/5115crb.htm
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 04:12:37+00:00

Document:
The claimant was represented by Joseph Marotti, Esq., Kolb & Associates, P.C., 49 High Street, East Haven, CT 06512.
The respondents were represented by Frank Ancona, Esq., Law Offices of David J. Mathis, 55 Farmington Avenue, Suite 500, Hartford, CT 06105.
This Petition for Review from the July 17, 2006 Finding and Award by the Commissioner acting for the Third District was heard December 15, 2006 before a Compensation Review Board panel consisting of the Commission Chairman John A. Mastropietro and Commissioners Donald H. Doyle, Jr. and Nancy E. Salerno.
JOHN A. MASTROPIETRO, CHAIRMAN. This appeal addresses a single question. Did an employee sustain an injury “arising out of and in the course of his employment” when she fell down on a public sidewalk between her employer’s parking lot and her place of employment? The trial commissioner concluded this was a compensable injury within the scope of our jurisdiction. The respondent disagrees and has appealed. We conclude the weight of precedent supports the trial commissioner under the facts presented in this case. We affirm his Finding and Award and dismiss this appeal.
There is no dispute that the claimant suffered a fall down injury on the morning of February 18, 2004 while walking between a parking lot on West Water Street in New Haven and the respondent’s office building at Columbus Square. It is also not disputed that the parking lot was owned, operated and maintained by the respondent. Both parties also agree that the claimant was provided by the respondent with free parking at the West Water Street lot. There is also no dispute that one cannot travel between the parking lot and the office building without the use of public streets and sidewalks.
The dispute centers on the time and place of the accident. The respondents point out that the claimant fell down on a public sidewalk owned by the City of New Haven. They also point out the claimant testified that she parked her vehicle at approximately 7:00 a.m. and was not scheduled to start work until 8:00 a.m. The claimant testified that she usually parked early so as to get a good space in the free lot. The injury occurred while she was walking directly to the office building, where she usually met with fellow workers in the company cafeteria until their shift started. She testified she fell down a few minutes after she parked.
The trial commissioner concluded after a November 17, 2005 formal hearing that the Commission had jurisdiction over the injury. He concluded that the claimant was walking on her normal route from the parking lot to the office and was walking along the shortest route available. As the only means to get from the parking lot to the office building was along a public highway the Commissioner concluded the claimant was performing a necessary activity incident to her employment for the joint benefit to her and the respondent and with the respondents’ approval. Therefore, the trial commissioner issued a Finding and Award to the claimant.
The respondents filed a Motion to Correct seeking to add new findings consistent with finding the injury was noncompensable as it was incurred during the course of commuting to work and that the “coming and going” rule barred an award under these facts. They also claim that as the immediate destination of the claimant was the company cafeteria that the injury was sustained in a “social or recreational” activity as defined in § 31-275(16)(B)(i) C.G.S. The trial commissioner denied the proposed corrections and the respondents have appealed to this board based on the same legal theories.
The respondents’ appeal is based on their view that this incident falls directly within the “coming and going” rule as defined in such cases as Dombach v. Olkon Corp., 163 Conn. 216, 222 (1972). “An injury sustained on a public highway while going to or from work is ordinarily not compensable.” Id.1 The present case, however, is not one where the claimant was injured on a public highway prior to reaching premises under the control of her employer, which would place the injury under the general rule in Dombach and outside the jurisdiction of Chapter 568. To the contrary, the trial commissioner concluded the claimant’s evidence established one of the exceptions to the general rule was present: “the employee is injured while using the highway in doing something incidental to his regular employment, for the joint benefit of himself and his employer, with the knowledge and approval of the employer.” Id.
Respondents appropriately point out that the claimant bears the burden of proof in a claim for benefits under Chapter 568. See Dengler v. Special Attention Health Svcs., Inc., 62 Conn. App. 440 (2001). The trial commissioner concluded the claimant had met her burden in establishing her injury occurred during an activity which conferred a “mutual benefit” to both her and her employer. We extend a deferential standard of review to this conclusion by the trial commissioner as the “[t]he conclusions drawn by him from the facts found must stand unless they result from an incorrect application of the law to the subordinate facts or from an inference illegally or unreasonably drawn from them.” Tovish v. Gerber Electronics, 32 Conn. App. 595, 602 (1993).
We also find this concept of “mutual benefit” has long been recognized when the employee is injured traveling on a public thoroughfare between two locations controlled by his employer. In 1946 the Connecticut Supreme Court issued its opinion in Kuharski v. Bristol Brass Corporation, 132 Conn. 563 (1946). In Kuharski the claimant was injured crossing the street between two buildings owned by the respondent. At the time the claimant was not at work, rather he was obtaining approval for extra gasoline rations prior to starting his shift.2 The court held “[t]he commissioner was therefore justified in concluding, in effect, that the plaintiff in crossing the street, was in a place where he could reasonably be in furtherance of his employment and the injury arose in the course of his employment.” Id., 566. The court distinguished the Kuharski case from a case relied on by the respondents in this matter, Flodin v. Henry & Wright Mfg. Co., 131 Conn. 244 (1944) as “[i]n the case at bar the plaintiff was not using the street as one of the general public but in reasonably pursuing an incident of his employment. The Flodin case is not controlling.” supra, 567.
The respondents argue the facts of the present case more closely resemble Spatafore v. Yale University, 239 Conn. 408 (1996) than the cases following Kuharski, supra. We disagree. In Spatafore the claimant was injured crossing a public street during an unpaid lunch hour while on her way to a union meeting. The Supreme Court concluded the record did not support a finding that the claimant’s travel to a union meeting was of “mutual benefit of employer and employee.” We distinguish the present case from Spatafore as that the Supreme Court reached a policy determination that deeming union meetings of “mutual benefit” to an employer and employee would be “a dramatic and unjustifiable expansion of our worker’s compensation law.” Id., 426. Conversely, we find the facts in this case consistent with long standing precedent concerning an employer’s parking facilities.
We believe the clear weight of precedent established that when the claimant parked her car on the morning of February 18, 2004 at the respondent’s West Water Street parking lot her commute was completed and the “coming and going” rule was no longer applicable. We agree with the respondents, the claimant still needed to establish her injury did not occur during a “social or recreational” activity as defined in § 31-275 (16)(B)(i) C.G.S. This determination is a factual determination where we must defer to the trial commissioner’s findings unless we determine that they are “clearly erroneous.” Berube v. Tim’s Painting, 5068 CRB-3-06-3 (March 13, 2007). “Put another way, the board is precluded from substituting its judgment for that of the commissioner with respect to factual determinations.” Anderton v. Wasteaway Services, 91 Conn. App. 345, 349 (2005).
The respondents also sought a correction that the injury was not in the course of employment due to the lack of proximity between the time of the injury and the time her shift started. The trial commissioner denied this correction. We find no error in the trial commissioner denying the respondents’ Motion to Correct in its entirety as we find sufficient basis for his factual conclusions and the respondent cannot expect the commissioner to substitute the respondent’s conclusions for his own. D’Amico v. Dept. of Correction, 73 Conn. App. 718, 728 (2002).
The Finding and Award is consistent with the controlling legal precedent for injuries sustained after an employee reaches his employer’s premises. As a result we affirm the Finding and Award and dismiss this appeal.

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