Opinion ID: 1153608
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Dual Purpose Issue

Text: As far as Mr. Gonzales was concerned, his trip from Anchorage to Homer can fairly be characterized as one for both business and personal purposes. He intended to estimate and work on a roofing job in Homer, on the other hand, he was taking his stepson and two employees to Homer for a fishing trip, and he also desired to explore certain terrain en route in anticipation of a future hunting trip. The formula generally used [11] to determine whether, on a dual purpose trip, the business purpose is sufficient to allow recovery under a Workmen's Compensation Act was first stated by Mr. Justice Cardozo in the landmark case of Marks' Dependants v. Gray, 251 N.Y. 90, 167 N.E. 181 (N.Y. 1929), as follows: We do not say that service to the employer must be the sole cause of the journey, but at least it must be a concurrent cause. To establish liability, the inference must be permissible that the trip would have been made though the private errand had been canceled... . The test in brief is this: If the work of the employee creates the necessity for travel, he is in the course of his employment, though he is serving at the same time some purpose of his own... . If, however, the work has had no part in creating the necessity for travel, if the journey would have gone forward though the business errand had been dropped, and would have been canceled upon failure of the private purpose, though the business errand was undone, the travel is then personal, and personal the risk. (at 183) (Emphasis added, footnote omitted.) The Board found that the flight would have been taken even if it had not been used for the purpose of searching for a landing strip or to take passengers to Homer to go fishing. Because there was substantial evidence to support this conclusion, no error was committed as to this aspect of the appeal. Mr. Gonzales testified that he had planned to return to Anchorage immediately after finishing the preliminary work on the Homer job, that the fishing trip for his passengers was arranged only after deciding to fly to the Homer job, and that, because of other current jobs in Anchorage, he would not have gone to Homer if he had not had the work there. [12] Thus, appellee has presented substantial evidence which established that the injury arose out of and in the course of employment. The presumption of AS 23.30.120 would apply until such time as there was evidence that appellee was outside the scope of his employment. At such time the claimant would then have the burden of going forward with evidence of the job related nature of the injury. We find the claimant met such a burden herein.