Court Opinion

ID: 9854532
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:08:48.095709+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:23:08.578700
License: Public Domain

Deen, Presiding Judge,
concurring specially.
While concurring with the majority opinion, I wish to add the following observations. Cases of this type particularly seem to result in splintered opinions, decided upon a case-by-case basis.
In Parker v. Travelers Ins. Co., 142 Ga. App. 711, 712 (236 SE2d 915) (1977), it was held that a truck driver, dockman, and part-time mechanic, who was injured while working during slack periods on personal cars, was entitled to compensation as his injury arose out of his employment. Parker is a full panel decision, rarely seen in cases of this nature, and even in it one judge felt compelled to concur specially.
The whole court case of Edwards v. State, 173 Ga. App. 87 (325 SE2d 437) (1984) (this writer dissenting), held by a six-to-three vote that a secretary who was regularly procuring lunch away from the office for her manager at a time period not coinciding with her own lunch break and was injured when obtaining a fast food chicken order, was within the scope of her employment at the time of her injury. Extending the rationale of the latter case to its logical conclusion, if a state employee suffers an injury on state time while away from the office shopping for groceries, taking cleaning to the laundry, mowing the lawn, or even baby sitting for the boss (all to enable him to remain at his desk more and to better perform his work), the injury would, arguably, be compensable under the cited cases because the employer enjoyed a benefit from the activity.
In the instant case, the employee was injured on the job site while trying to repair a belt on a drill press of a fellow employee, whereas his particular job assignment was operating a “grinding machine.” In considering whether these acts arose out of the scope of employment, it appears that the instant case has more similarities than dissimilarities to Parker, where the mechanic was working on personal cars of other employees, and Edwards, where the secretary was running throughout the city procuring lunch at different places for her manager.
I acknowledge that we are bound by the holdings in Edwards and Parker, and note that wider gaps do exist and dissimilarities outweigh similarities in some cases. For example, in a case where the employee was assigned the task of building turkey pens for a corporate president whose hobby was raising turkeys, American Mut. Liability Ins. Co. v. Lemming, 187 Ga. 378 (200 SE 141) (1938), and in a case where the employee decided to go eighteen miles farther to Tybee Beach to *739get a fresh seafood dinner and see the ocean, rather than eating in Savannah where the company meeting was held, U. S. Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Skinner, 188 Ga. 823 (5 SE2d 9) (1939), compensation was denied on the basis that the acts did not arise out of and in the course of employment.
I believe that the cases seem to point to the conclusion that these types of situations almost always require a case-by-case analysis, very similar to our approach in slip and fall cases. While sympathizing with the dissent’s position, I also believe that the act here arose out of employment, as well as in the course of employment.