Court Opinion

ID: 9581984
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 22:21:04.219947+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:37:22.336466
License: Public Domain

Birdsong , Judge,
dissenting.
In addition to the reasons advanced by Judge. *445Quillian in his dissent, I find that the cases of Federal Ins. Co. v. Coram, 95 Ga. App. 622, 624 (98 SE2d 214); U. S. Cas. Co. v. Russell, 98 Ga. App. 181 (105 SE2d 378), cited as authority by the majority, in my opinion, are not Controlling in the case sub judice for the reason that both cases involved injuries to employees sustained on the premises of the employer.
In the Coram case, it was "stipulated and agreed that the parking lot in which the employee’s car was parked was on the premises of the employer, was furnished by the employer...” (Emphasis supplied.), Coram, p. 623 (7). The Russell case also involved an injury to an employee "... going from or returning to company-supplied parking facilities on the premises . . .” (Emphasis supplied.) Russell, p. 184. The issue presented in Russell was still narrower: Once the employee is on the premises of the employer, what is a reasonable time before starting work during which the "course of employment” may be said to have begun?
The majority’s decision is based on the premise that the employee was injured on the employer’s premises. The majority has concluded that, merely because the parking facilities were owned by the claimant’s employer (the state), she was entitled to recover. Yet, should a different result obtain if the employer had parked in a. privately-owned facility? Were the majority to hold that the "course of employment” begins when the employee parks her vehicle pursuant to entering her place of employment, I would not quarrel with the result. I am unable to agree, however, with the majority’s conclusion that the state employee’s voluntary and fortuitous decision to park on state-owned facilities entitles her to workmen’s compensation benefits when injured thereon.
For the reasons stated, I respectfully dissent.