Opinion ID: 2211440
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 5

Heading: michigan law allows compensation to an employee injured while traveling for his employer

Text: The majority observes that this Court has not addressed the social activity exception to the coming and going presumption in M.C.L. § 418.301(3); MSA 17.237(301)(3). Although it has yet to address the exception specifically, it has recognized that traveling employees are subject to unique circumstances for purposes of worker's compensation benefits. The majority fails to take this consideration into account in its application of the social activity exception to the facts here. In Thiede v. G.D. Searle & Co , [5] a traveling salesman died when the hotel where he was staying burned down. This Court found that, because plaintiff's employment required him to stay at a hotel, [t]he risks to which he was exposed in staying at hotels ... were incidental to his employment. Thiede, supra at 113, 270 N.W. 234. The plaintiff's estate was awarded worker's compensation benefits. Id. Likewise, Eversman was expected to stay at a hotel and eat his meals in restaurants as an incident of his employment. The majority arrives at the conclusion that his activities were mainly recreational after [e]xamining the totality of circumstances surrounding Eversman's activities during the six-hour episode.... Op. p. 866. But, it appears to have left out one important factor in its analysis: Eversman was in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, at the request of his employer. He could not go home, but had to occupy himself in that location until the weather cleared, so that he could finish his assignment. The majority appears to believe that an employee who has been sent to an out-of-town work site is expected to do his job and nothing else. This leads to troublesome results. For example, if there were no washer and dryer in an employee's hotel, and he ventured outside, would he be ineligible for worker's compensation benefits if injured at a Laundromat? I would not impose an unreasonable limitation on employees who must travel as a requirement of their employment.