Court Opinion

ID: 9577587
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 21:36:21.430365+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:20:52.188475
License: Public Domain

Gerrard, J.,
concurring.
While I concur with the majority’s judgment in this case, I write separately because I do not believe that the premises rule should be a bright-line rule for which there is never an exception. The premises rule is, of course, one subcategory of the familiar “going to and from work” rule in workers’ compensation cases.
I. “GOING TO AND FROM WORK” RULE
In Nebraska, the rule is that an injury sustained by an employee while going to and from work, at a fixed place of employment, does not arise out of and in the course of employment, subject to a few limited exceptions. See, P.A.M. v. Quad L. Assocs., 221 Neb. 642, 380 N.W.2d 243 (1986); Kopfman v. Freedom Drilling Co., 220 Neb. 323, 370 N.W.2d 89 (1985) (transportation furnished to employee by employer either incident to employment contract or because of custom of job operates to bring employee within scope of employment during time of transportation); Butt v. City Wide Rock Exc. Co., 204 Neb. 126, 281 N.W.2d 406 (1979) (exception when transportation to place of work is furnished by employer and injury occurs while worker is being transported in vehicle under control of employer); Schademann v. Casey, 194 Neb. 149, 231 N.W.2d 116 (1975).
In Acton v. Wymore School Dist. No. 114, 172 Neb. 609, 111 N.W.2d 368 (1961), we held that a school employee, who was injured when she slipped and fell on a city sidewalk which was 1.78 feet from the school district’s property line, had not sustained an injury which arose in the course of her employment because the accident occurred off the employer’s premises and, thus, was subject to the “going to and from work” rule.
However, Neb. Rev. Stat. § 48-101 (Reissue 1993) compensates injuries caused to an employee “by accident . . . arising out of and in the course of his or her employment . . . .” First, the act does not say, as often paraphrased, that the employee must have been in the course of her employment; it *85says that the injury must arise in the course of the employment. Second, the verb used in the act is not to “occur” in the course of employment, but to “aris[e] out of” the course of employment, which in a close case often makes a difference. See 1 Arthur Larson & Lex K. Larson, The Law of Workmen’s Compensation § 14.00 (1995).
The real test of compensability should not be based solely on whether an accident occurs on the employer’s premises', but, instead, if a distinct “arising out of” or causal connection exists between the conditions under which a claimant must approach and leave the work premises and the occurrence of an injury, the injury should be-compensable. See id. § 15.15.
1. Recognized Exception to Rule
A well-recognized exception to the “going to and from work” rule is pointed out thusly in 1 Larson & Larson, supra, § 15.14(a) at 4-57: “One category in which compensation is almost always awarded is that in which the employee travels along or across a public road between two portions of his employer’s premises, whether going and coming, or pursuing his active duties.” See, e.g., Hughes v. Decatur General Hosp., 514 So. 2d 935 (Ala. 1987) (decedent killed in public street between employer’s main premises and employer’s parking lot); Knoop v. Industrial Commission, 121 Ariz. 293, 589 P.2d 1325 (Ariz. App. 1978) (employee fell and was injured crossing public street between employer’s building and employer’s parking lot); State Fund v. Walter, 143 Colo. 549, 354 P.2d 591 (1960) (employee injured on public street separating employer’s premises and parking lot); Campbell v. Gates Rubber Company, 526 P.2d 679 (Colo. App. 1974) (employee slipped on ice and fell while walking on sidewalk between employer’s premises and parking lot owned and maintained by employer) (citing State Fund v. Walter, supra); West Point Pepperell, Inc. v. McEntire, 150 Ga. App. 728, 258 S.E.2d 530 (1979), cert. denied (employee struck by car while crossing street between employer’s premises and employer-owned parking lot); Gray Hill, Inc. v. Industrial Com., 145 Ill. App. 3d 371, 495 N.E.2d 1030 (1986), cert. denied 112 Ill. 2d 574, cert. denied 479 U.S. 1089, 107 S. Ct. 1298, 94 L. Ed. 2d 154 (1987) (employee fell *86on public sidewalk between entrance to employer’s premises she was instructed to use and her parking lot); Thomasee v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 385 So. 2d 1219 (La. App. 1980), writ denied 392 So. 2d 675 (La. 1980) (employee fell on steps adjacent to employer’s premises while walking from parking lot where employee had been directed to park); Wiley Mfg. Co. v. Wilson, 280 Md. 200, 373 A.2d 613 (1977) (employee struck by train while taking one of two alternate routes to parking lot); Matter of Gaik v. National Aniline Div., 5 A.D.2d 1039, 173 N.Y.8.2d 409 (1958) (employee injured while walking to employer-owned parking lot two blocks from employer’s premises); Griffin v. General Motors, 39 Ohio St. 3d 79, 529 N.E.2d 436 (1988) (employee injured while crossing driveway between employer’s plant and its parking lot after she had finished work for the day); Swanson v. General Paint Company, 361 P.2d 842 (Okla. 1961) (employee killed while crossing public highway between work premises and parking lot furnished by employer’s landlord); Willis v. State Accident Insurance Fund, 3 Or. App. 565, 475 P.2d 986 (1970) (university dean slipped and fell in public area while walking from university parking lot to his place of work); Hreha v. Harry Sugerman, Inc., 482 Pa. 402, 393 A.2d 1168 (1978) (employee injured crossing street between employer’s parking lot and employer’s premises); Epler v. North Am. Rockwell Corp., 482 Pa. 391, 393 A.2d 1163 (1978) (employee killed while crossing street to parking lot which city required employer to provide and in which employer required employee to park); Branco v. Leviton Mfg. Co., Inc., 518 A.2d 621 (R.I. 1986) (employee injured crossing street between employer’s plant and employer owned and controlled parking lot in which employee was specifically directed to park); Lollar v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., 767 S.W.2d 143 (Tenn. 1989) (employee injured while walking to employee designated parking area in employer’s parking lot generally open to public).
2. Problem With Bright-Line Premises Rule Analysis
Using hypothetical facts similar to those in the instant case as an example: If a medical clinic owns or provides an employee parking lot across the street and requests that employees park in that parking lot, and an employee slips and falls while crossing *87the street, then a distinct causal connection exists between an employer-created condition and the occurrence of an injury under the reasoning of a majority of jurisdictions. By owning or sponsoring a parking lot not contiguous to the working premises, an employer creates the condition whereby an employee necessarily must encounter the hazards lying between the two employer premises. Thus, in such a case, there is a distinct “arising out of” or causal connection between the conditions under which an employee must approach and leave the premises and the occurrence of the injury.
However, if we were to apply the bright-line premises rule to the above set of facts, an employee would recover if she slips and falls on the clinic premises or in the clinic-owned parking lot across the street, but not if she falls while she is crossing the public street. There is no logical reason, based on a causal connection analysis, to find that an injury sustained in a parking lot on either side of the street “arises out of” the course of employment and is compensable, but that the same injury does not “arise out of” the course of employment if the accident occurs on a public street or sidewalk connecting the two parking lots.
Of course, the above hypothetical is another case for another day, but it illustrates the problem of trying to fit every set of facts into a bright-line premises rule. Our decisionmaking should be based on a distinct “arising out of” or causation analysis rather than on applying bright-line rules for the sake of administrative ease.
3. Application of Causal Connection Analysis
In the instant case, Johnson was not encountering hazards between two employer premises when she sustained her injury. Nor was she traveling from what could fairly be characterized as an employer-sponsored parking lot to her place of employment. Johnson’s employer did not provide a parking lot or require her to park in a particular place. Johnson could have parked anywhere she desired, or she could have walked to work from her home. Clearly, the hazard encountered by Johnson which caused her injury was not one created by the clinic. There was no distinct causal connection between her work conditions *88and the occurrence of her injury in the Home Federal Savings & Loan parking lot.
II. CONCLUSION
Therefore, I concur in the result reached by the majority, but I would henceforth abandon the inflexible premises rule set forth in Acton v. Wymore School Dist. No. 114, 172 Neb. 609, 111 N.W.2d 368 (1961), and, instead, analyze our cases dealing with the “going to and coming from work” rule by determining whether a distinct causal connection exists between an employer-created condition and the occurrence of an injury.
Wright and Connolly, JL, join in this concurrence.