Epler v. North American Rockwell Corp.

POMEROY, Justice,

concurring.

As I view what happened in this case, the claimant’s husband met his death while crossing a public highway en route from one part of his employer’s premises — the factory — to another part of the premises — the parking lot. I agree that in this situation the decedent’s death should be compensable.

I concur separately because I believe that the majority states its holding in terms more expansive than warranted by the salutary theory the opinion expounds. The majority is correct that the award of compensation for injuries upon the employer’s premises, the so-called “premises rule”, 1 is based on the employment relationship, not on the employer’s ownership and control over the area where the injury occurred. For an injury to be compensable, however, it is neither legally nor logically “sufficient” merely that “the employee is required to be in the area because of the employment,” as stated by the Court, supra at 1167. Rather, the instant case falls within a narrow exception to the “premises rule”, viz. travel between two parts of the premises.

The exception to the “premises rule” recognized by the Court today is that an injury in a public street or other off-premises place between plant and parking lots is in the course of employment because it occurs on a necessary route between two portions of the premises. This position represents the majority rule of other jurisdictions, as the cases collected in the margin show. 2 The best explanation for *401 today’s short extension of the “premises rule” is that the employer is responsible for creating the necessity of his employees’ encountering the particular hazards of the trip between a non-contiguous parking lot and the working plant *402 itself. The extension is not intended to broaden the coverage of compensable injuries beyond those which occur while an employee is traveling between two parts of the employer’s premises. See 1 A. Larson, Workmen’s Compensation Law §§ 15.10-.15 (1978 and Supp.1978).

. See subsection 301(c)(1) of The Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act, Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, art. Ill, § 301(c)(1), as amended, 77 P.S. § 411(1) (Supp.1978), reprinted in the Majority Opinion, supra at 1164-1165.

. Lewis v. WCAB, 15 Cal.3d 559 , 125 Cal.Rptr. 353 , 542 P.2d 225 (1975) (compensable injury incurred by county employee during *401 three-block walk from leased parking lot to work premises); State Compensation Ins. Fund v. Walter, 143 Colo. 549 , 354 P.2d 591 (1960) (compensable injury occurred on public street separating parking lot from main area); Proctor-Silex Corp. v. DeBrick, 253 Md. 477 , 252 A.2d 800 (Md.App.1969) (successful claimant injured while walking on icy sidewalk adjoining employer’s building en route from leased parking lot across the street); Adair v. Metropolitan Bldg. Co., 38 Mich.App. 393 , 196 N.W.2d 335 (1972) (resident building superintendent compensated for injury incurred walking from employer’s building along driveway owned by another company to employer’s parking lot); Lewis v. Walter Scott & Co., 50 N.J.Super. 283 , 141 A.2d 807 (1958) (compensable fall on public sidewalk connecting building with employees’ parking lot); Gaik v. National Aniline Div., Allied Chem. & Dye Corp., 5 A.D.2d 1039 , 173 N.Y.S.2d 409 (1958) (fall on sidewalk outside of plant compensable when employee was coming from employer-owned parking lot located two blocks away); Swanson v. General Paint Co., 361 P.2d 842 (Okl.1961) (fatal accident while crossing a public highway between the work premise and a parking lot furnished by the employer’s landlord was compensable; Willis v. State Acc. Ins. Fund, 3 Or.App. 565 , 475 P.2d 986 (1970) (university dean awarded benefits for fall in public area between university parking lot and his office). Cf. Liberty Mutual Ins. Co. v. Bray, 136 Ga.App. 587 , 222 S.E.2d 70 (1975) (claimant struck by auto while crossing public highway from place of employment to employer-provided parking lot; injury held not compensable in 5-4 decision because of claimant’s willful misconduct in violating statute by jaywalking 300 feet from pedestrian crossing at traffic light). Contra, Maddox v. Heaven Hill Distilleries, Inc., 329 S.W.2d 189 (Ky. App.1959) (no award to employee struck crossing public street to company lot; Kentucky does not consider parking lots to be “premises”); Osborn v. Industrial Comm’n., 50 Ill.2d 150 , 277 N.E.2d 833 (1972) (injury of claimant struck by auto crossing public street from factory to employer-owned parking lot held noncompensable as normal “going and coming”); Horn v. Sandhill Furniture Co., 245 N.C. 173 , 95 S.E.2d 521 (1956) (compensation denied employee struck by car while crossing highway to employer-owned vacant lot where employees parked cars and ate lunch); Smith v. Camel Mfg. Co., 192 Tenn. 670 , 241 S.W.2d 771 (1951) (employee fell on icy public sidewalk between employer-controlled parking lot and office building; Tennessee does not consider employer’s parking lot to be “premises”); Peters v. Bristol Mfg. Corp., 94 R.I. 255 , 179 A.2d 853 (1962) (no compensation for fall in public sidewalk between parking lot and work place); Dickson v. Industrial Comm’n., 261 Wis. 65 , 51 N.W.2d 553 (1952) (claimant denied compensation for injury incurred while following path maintained by employer over streetcar tracks to parking lot).