Court Opinion

ID: 9646291
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-23 12:55:10.427803+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:11:36.380528
License: Public Domain

CRIST, Judge,
dissenting.
I dissent. The mutual benefits doctrine requires that the injury arise both “out of,” and “in the course of,” the employment. Davison v. Florsheim Co., 750 S.W.2d 481, 483[2, 3] (Mo.App.1988); Yaffe v. St. Louis Children’s Hosp., 648 S.W.2d 549, 550 (Mo.App.1982). This injury did not arise “out of” the employment. An injury arises out of the employment when there is “a causal connection between the nature of the employee’s duties or conditions under which he is required to perform them and the resulting injury.” Davison, 750 S.W.2d at 483[4]. Further, the injury must result from a risk reasonably inherent in the particular conditions of employment. Yaffe, 648 S.W.2d at 551. While on his motorcycle, decedent was not exposed to a greater danger than the public at large by reason of his employment.
The majority attempts to distinguish this case from that of Beck v. Edison Bros. Stores, Inc., 657 S.W.2d 326 (Mo.App.1983). The majority argues the cases are distinguishable because in Beck, the claimant was not in the employment of her employer at the time of her injury. Whether or not the claimant was in the employment of her employer is exactly the issue in both cases. The general rule on going to and coming from work, as enunciated in Beck and numerous other cases, is that injuries sustained by an employee while going to or from work are not generally held to arise out of and in the course of employment. Id. at 328[1]. An exception to this rule exists where the off-premises point is on the only route or the normal route that employees must take to get to their employment and there exists a special hazard, one to which the employee is exposed by reason of the employment, to which the general public is not subjected. Id. (Emphasis added.) In Beck, the court found that because claimant was subject to the same hazards to which the general public was exposed (she slipped on snow on the sidewalk while walking towards employer’s front door), she was not by reason of her employment exposed to a greater danger than the public at large. The same reasoning holds true in this case. Running into a parked car while riding a motorcycle is a risk to which the general public is subjected. This risk was not increased in any way by the nature of decedent’s employment.
The Commission’s order was supported by competent and substantial evidence on the whole record. The majority opinion has erroneously applied the law.