Opinion ID: 2585508
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: the dual purpose exception

Text: ¶ 14 If an employee's personal conduct benefits an employer, we have implied that the employer may be held liable where the predominant purpose of the conduct was not personal. See Whitehead, 801 P.2d at 937 (noting application of coming and going rule depends upon benefit to and exercise of control by employer). Whitehead held that an employer was not liable for negligence of its employee while commuting home, despite the employee's intention to make business calls from his home that evening. Id. In making the determination that the employer was not liable, this court applied a useful test for determining whether business was the predominant purpose for the trip. The inquiry is whether the trip is one which would have required the employer to send another employee over the same route or to perform the same function if the trip had not been made. Id. Although this is not the only method for evaluating the application of the dual purpose exception, it is instructive in this case. ¶ 15 Although the City received some benefit from Ross's trip home from work on the day of her accident, the facts before the trial court were not sufficient to make that benefit the predominant purpose of Ross's trip. Unlike the Johnson case, it did not appear vitally necessary to the City that she be accessible while on personal errands. There is no indication the City would have sent any one else on the trip had Ross not gone. Thus, it is apparent, based on the proof to date, that the benefits the City received from Ross's commute were only tangential to Ross's purpose of commuting home from work that day. Such tangential benefits are not enough to result in respondeat superior liability for the City under the dual purpose exception to the coming and going rule.