Opinion ID: 2629801
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: For the Application of Workers' Compensation Law, the Parking Lot Constitutes the Employer's Premises.

Text: ¶ 10 Neither party disputes that the owner of the shopping center provided the parking lot for the joint use and benefit of employees and customers, nor that the employer acquiesced in the employee's use of the landlord-provided parking lot. Similar situations existed in Max E. Landry, Inc. v. Treadway, 1966 OK 259, 421 P.2d 829 and Swanson v. General Paint Co., 1961 OK 70, 361 P.2d 842. ¶ 11 The Treadway employer conducted its business in a building in which several other business were operated. The owner of the building provided a parking lot for the employees and customers of the building to use. When the Treadway claimant arrived for work, she slipped and fell before entering the building. The Court held that insofar as workers' compensation law is concerned, a parking lot constitutes an employer's premises when the employer's landlord furnishes it for the joint use of tenants and their employees, and its use is acquiesced in by the employer. ¶ 12 In Swanson, an employee was killed while crossing a highway from the parking area to the place of employment. The landlord furnished a parking area for the convenience of its several tenants and their employees. The employer acquiesced in the employee's use of a landlord-provided parking lot. The Swanson Court held that the parking area constituted a part of the employer's premises within the meaning of the Act. Pursuant to the rule set forth in Treadway and Swanson, the shopping center parking lot constituted the employer's premises.