Clemans v. Wishard Memorial Hosp.

• Citation: 727 N.E.2d 1084
• Decision Date: 25 April 2000
• Docket Number: No. 93A02-9910-EX-714.,93A02-9910-EX-714.
• Parties: Judith CLEMANS, Appellant-Plaintiff, v. WISHARD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, Appellee-Defendant.
• Court: Court of Appeals of Indiana

727 N.E.2d 1084

Judith CLEMANS, Appellant-Plaintiff, v. WISHARD MEMORIAL HOSPITAL, Appellee-Defendant.

No. 93A02-9910-EX-714.

Court of Appeals of Indiana.

April 25, 2000.

Rehearing Denied July 10, 2000.

Jerry Garau, Findling Garau Germano & Pennington, P.C. Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorney for Appellant.

Robert A. Fanning, Julia Blackwell Gelinas, Locke Reynolds, LLP Indianapolis, Indiana, Attorneys for Appellee.

OPINION

BROOK, Judge.

Case Summary

Appellant-plaintiff Judith Clemans ("Clemans") appeals from the denial by the Worker's Compensation Board ("the Board") of her claim under the Worker's Compensation Act ("the Act"),¹ alleging injuries arising out of and in the course of her employment with Wishard Memorial Hospital ("Wishard"), the appellee-defendant.

We reverse.

Issues

Clemans presents a single restated issue for our review: whether the Board erred in concluding that she did not sustain an injury arising out of and in the course of her employment with Wishard.

Facts²and Procedural History³

Clemans was a laboratory technician for Wishard and worked on the main level of Wishard's Regenstrief Building. She parked her car in an employee parking lot provided by Wishard known as the West Lot. Wilson Street, a public thoroughfare neither owned nor controlled by Wishard, runs between the Regenstrief Building and the West Lot. There are two paths that Wishard employees can take to access the West Lot from the Regenstrief Building: they can either exit the Regenstrief Building through its main level doors and cross Wilson Street directly; or they can go to the lower level of the Regenstrief Building, enter a tunnel that crosses beneath Wilson Street, exit the tunnel into an adjacent physician's parking lot, and from there walk to the West Lot. Wishard employees are not encouraged or required to use the tunnel to reach the West Lot, and means of access to the West Lot is left to the employee's discretion.

On the afternoon of April 9, 1998, Clemans completed her duties at Wishard, exited the Regenstrief Building on the main level, and began walking toward the West Lot. She was crossing Wilson Street outside the boundaries of its marked pedestrian crosswalk when she was struck by a car and injured. As a result of her injuries, Clemans filed an application for worker's compensation benefits on August 18, 1998. After a hearing, a single hearing member of the Board denied Clemans' claim for compensation under the Act and entered his findings as follows:

1. It is ... found that the factual matters herein are not in dispute, the same having been stipulated to by the parties.

2. It is further found that based on such stipulated facts, the undersigned does conclude that the plaintiff did not suffer an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of her employment. This conclusion is based on the fact that the plaintiff was not on the premises of the defendant but in fact was on a public street not owned, controlled, or maintained by the defendant.

3. It is further found that the plaintiff was exposed to no special hazard greater than the public at large by the use of the public street and an alternate means of accessing the defendant's parking lot by way of a covered tunnel was available.

4. It is further found, therefore, that plaintiff shall take nothing by her application filed herein.

The full Board summarily affirmed the decision of the single hearing member on September 17, 1999, with four members of the Board concurring and three members dissenting.

Discussion and Decision

The Act provides compensation for employees who suffer injuries that occur "by accident arising out of and in the course of their employment." IND.CODE § 22-3-2-5. The determination of whether an injury arises out of and in the course of employment is fact-sensitive and depends upon the circumstances of each case. Construction Management and Design, Inc. v. Vanderweele, 660 N.E.2d 1046, 1049 (Ind.Ct.App.1996), trans. denied. However, if the facts pertinent to the question of liability are not in dispute, as here, the question becomes one of law for the courts to decide. Id. When reviewing a decision of the full Board, this court is not bound by the Board's interpretation of the law, and we will reverse a decision if the Board incorrectly interprets the Act. Duvall v. ICI Americas, Inc., 621 N.E.2d 1122, 1124 (Ind.Ct.App.1993). Nevertheless, we will pay due deference to the interpretation of a statute by the administrative agency charged with its enforcement in light of its expertise in its given area. Ballard v. Book Heating & Cooling, Inc., 696 N.E.2d 55, 56 (Ind.Ct.App.1998), trans. denied.

Our analysis in this case proceeds from the well-settled precept that the Act, being remedial in nature, should be liberally construed to accomplish the purpose for which it was enacted; consequently, it should be liberally construed in favor of employees and beneficiaries. See Goldstone v. Kozma, 149 Ind.App. 626, 631-32, 274 N.E.2d 304, 307 (1971). It is also well recognized that the words "arising out of" and "in the course of employment" as they are used in the Act should be liberally construed to accomplish the humane purposes of the Act. Id., 149 Ind.App. at 632, 274 N.E.2d at 308. "Arising out of" and "in the course of" are two separate and distinct elements: the "in the course of" element refers to the time, place, and circumstances of the accident, while the "arising out of" element refers to the causal connection between the accident and the employment. K-Mart Corp. v. Novak, 521 N.E.2d 1346, 1348 (Ind.Ct.App. 1988). Specifically,

[t]he employment is not limited to the exact moment when the workman reaches the place where he is to begin his work, or to the moment when he ceases that work. It necessarily includes a reasonable amount of time and space before and after ceasing actual employment, having in mind all the circumstances connected with the accident.

Reed v. Brown, 129 Ind.App. 75, 82, 152 N.E.2d 257, 259 (1958) (citations omitted). An injury arises out of employment when a causal nexus exists between the injury sustained and the duties or service performed by the injured employee. Burke v. Wilfong, 638 N.E.2d 865, 869 (Ind.Ct.App. 1994). Such a nexus is established "when a reasonably prudent person considers a risk to be incidental to the employment at the time of entering into it." Id.

Wishard relies heavily on the proposition that merely traveling to or from work is not considered to be within the scope of employment; thus, without more, accidents that occur during these periods are not recoverable under the Act. See Segally v. Ancerys, 486 N.E.2d 578, 581 (Ind.Ct.App.1985). However, a public policy exception to this rule has been expressly created by our courts to extend coverage of the Act to those accidents resulting from employees' ingress to or egress from their employer's operating premises or extensions thereof. Id. For instance, this court has held that employer-controlled parking lots and private drives used by employees are extensions of the employer's operating premises for purposes of coverage under the Act. See Lawhead v. Brown, 653 N.E.2d 527, 529 (Ind.Ct.App. 1995) (parking lot); United States Steel Corp. v. Brown, 142 Ind.App. 18, 22, 231 N.E.2d 839, 842 (1967) (private drive).

In keeping with these principles, we conclude as a matter of law that the injuries Clemans sustained as she was crossing Wilson Street arose out of and in the course of her employment with Wishard such that she is entitled to recovery under the Act. In particular, the injuries she sustained in that accident resulted from her egress from Wishard's operating premises and are therefore compensable.

In so holding, we turn to the court's well-reasoned opinion in Reed, which involved a private driveway that ran through the employer's property and crossed a set of railroad tracks owned and maintained by the railroad company. The property was subject to the operating easement of this railroad company, but the land and private driveway on both sides of the tracks was owned by the employer. There were two means of access to the building where the employee worked: one where no flasher signals were posted at the point where the private driveway crossed the tracks, and one where flasher signals were posted. The employee was driving to work using the private driveway without flasher signals when he was struck and killed by an oncoming train. In concluding that the accident on the railroad tracks arose out of and in the course of the employee's employment, the Reed court held:

It has been stated that in attempting to define in part what constitutes a reasonable time and space for ingress to and egress from the place of employment, the courts have seemed to set the boundary roughly at the employer's premises.... [T]he term, employer's premises, has been construed to mean any premises which the parties contemplate shall be used for ingress and egress, regardless of ownership. "The overwhelming weight of authority permits a very broad definition of `premises,' not only to include premises owned by the employer, but also premises leased, hired, supplied, or used by him, even private alleyways merely used by the employer."...

It seems clear from [the stipulated facts] that the appellants contemplated that the decedent, at his own election, should have the right to use and travel upon said private driveway in going to and from his work. In fact, it seems not amiss to say that decedent was, in effect, invited by appellants to avail himself of such route.... While not stipulated, the inference is irresistible that passage over ... said private driveway across the tracks afforded a much quicker, shorter and more convenient route to and from the place of employment.

Notwithstanding appellants had no "control" over the real estate "described in said easement," the fact is evident that appellants' driveway extended across the tracks and

...