Opinion ID: 1418285
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: special risk exception

Text: (3) If, prior to entry upon the premises, an employee suffers injury from a special risk causally related to employment, the injury is compensable under the special risk exception to the going and coming rule. The facts that an accident happens upon a public road and that the danger is one to which the general public is likewise exposed, however, do not preclude the existence of a causal relationship between the accident and the employment if the danger is one to which the employee, by reason of and in connection with his employment, is subjected peculiarly or to an abnormal degree. ( Freire v. Matson Navigation Co. (1941) 19 Cal.2d 8, 12 [118 P.2d 809]; 1 Larson, supra, § 9.30, pp. 3-48  3-50.) Thus, in Freire we held that an employee injured on a bulkhead while attempting to enter the employer's premises was within the ambit of workers' compensation because the plaintiff [employee] by reason of his employment was subjected to the risks arising on the bulkhead peculiarly and to an abnormal degree. (19 Cal.2d at p. 13.) Similarly, the special risk exception was held applicable in Pacific Indem. Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com. (Henslick) supra, 28 Cal.2d 329 and Greydanus v. Industrial Acc. Com., supra, 63 Cal.2d 490. In both Henslick and Greydanus the employees were injured in accidents while making left turns on a public street to the employers' premises in the face of oncoming traffic. In both cases we held the making of a left turn exposed the employee to a particular risk  one distinctive in nature  not shared by the public generally. ( Henslick, supra, 28 Cal.2d at pp. 337-338; Greydanus, supra, 63 Cal.2d at p. 493; see generally, 1 Larson, supra, § 15.13, pp. 4-7  4-19.) (2b) The facts of the present case show that Chairez' injury was causally related to his employment. But for his job, Chairez would not have been on La Cienega that morning. However, Chairez' death does not come within the second requirement of the special risk exception  that the risk is distinctive in nature or quantitatively greater than risks common to the public. Chairez was parked on a public street at a time and in a location where parking is available to the general public. The fact that he was struck by a passing motorist, while tragic, is a type of risk the public is subject to daily. Moreover, nothing in the facts indicates Chairez was exposed to a greater risk from passing motorists than was anyone else on La Cienega that morning.