Court Opinion

ID: 9738118
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-26 19:43:04.868606+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:24:03.794548
License: Public Domain

NEAL, Judge,
concurring.
I agree with the majority opinion in its totality, but I wish to add one more observation. In Wayne Adams Buick, Inc. v. Ference (1981), Ind.App., 421 N.E.2d 733, trans. denied, a bookkeeper of an automobile agency was mugged and robbed of personal possessions by hoodlums while mailing company letters in a mailbox just across the street from the agency. Based on the peril of the street doctrine, we held that her injuries arose out of the employment. In discussing the peril of the street doctrine, we note that on the streets of cities vehicles may collide, mad dogs may run wild, gunmen may discharge their weapons, madmen may be afoot, and police may shoot at fugitives. In such encounters an employee, while conducting his employer's business, may be injured, in which event the cases hold that his injuries arose out of the employment.
K-Mart is a large open concept store which is as accessible as the open street to lunatics and gunmen. The same philosophical underpinning which supported the recovery in Waynre Adams supports the recovery here. Recovery is not to be denied because Margaret Novak was performing her duties just inside the store, and not just outside the store as was Lu*1353cille Ference. Causation and results are identical in the two cases.