Court Opinion

ID: 9707349
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 02:09:26.85407+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:41:10.228287
License: Public Domain

Mr. Justice Klingbiel, dissenting: I cannot agree with the conclusion reached by the court. In my opinion it is preposterous to say a man is in the course of his employment when he is on his way to a cafe for breakfast an hour before he is due to report for work. The mere fact that he parked his car in the company lot has little bearing on the nature of his activity at the time. It is clear that he left it there at that hour of the day solely for his own convenience, whatever the case might have been later had he been on his way to report for work. The trip for breakfast can hardly be brought within the scope of employment by calling it a “detour”. Nor is it material to speculate that the condition of the lot was the same as it would have been later had he sustained the injury in going to report for work. The accident might not have occurred at all had he been on his way to punch in, and in any event the plain and simple fact is that it did not happen later; it happened as he was on an excursion of his own. It is begging the question to announce that destination and time of arrival are not relevant to the “risk”. What must be determined in these cases is whether such factors are relevant to the employment. (See, e.g., Mills v. Industrial Com., 27 Ill.2d 441; Village of Mark v. Industrial Com., 12 Ill.2d 168.) In the case at bar relevance for that purpose is hardly disputable. I would suppose none of my brethren would deny relevance if the claimant had parked his car in the lot at 9 P.M. the evening before on his way to a tavern, intending to leave it there throughout the following working day. In such a case, I take it that an .award would be considered highfy unauthorized, regardless of whether or not the condition of the lot had been “remedied” before working hours began. The court’s conclusion on the present facts is, in my opinion, hardly less absurd. The majority opinion lays stress on the supposed fact that “His presence in the lot was due entirely to his employment.” But this court has heretofore repeatedly pointed out that “the mere fact that an employee is present at the place of injury because of his employment does not suffice.” (Mills v. Industrial Com., 27 Ill.2d 441, 443; Village of Mark v. Industrial Com., 12 Ill.2d 168, 170.) As we quoted and emphasized in the Mills case, “ ‘The accident must result from a risk incidental to the employment and while the employee is doing that which he is reasonably required to do within the time of his employment and at the place where he may be reasonably expected to be while discharging the duties of his employment.’ ” (27 Ill.2d at 443-444.) The statute requires that the injury arise in the course of employment, and this requirement ought to be applied in a reasonable and common-sense manner. It is extremely unlikely that either the claimant or any of his companions joining him for breakfast would have imagined that it was all part of their employment and that the claimant was on the job at the time. Whatever might have been his custom in arriving early, it was entirely by his own choice and on his own time. His hours of work and his duties were not to begin until 7:00 o’clock. The only reasonable conclusion under the circumstances is that when he was heading for the cafe a block away, he was not yet in the course of his employment. (Keystone Steel & Wire Co. v. Industrial Com., 40 Ill.2d 160, 164.) Our language in the case cited is pertinent here that “If it is socially desirable that employers be required to compensate people for injuries in such a case as this, the appropriate course is by amendment of the statute, not by judicial interpretation. As in any area where ordinary language is given an unnatural or tortured meaning to reach a decision thought desirable, a strained construction of an act designed only to compensate for injuries at work would have unfortunate consequences far beyond the immediate issues.” I would hold that ón the undisputed facts the claimant’s injury did not arise out of or in the course of his employment, and that the circuit court ought to have set aside the award.