Rodriguez v. N.Y.C. Transit Auth.
| Decision Date | 31 May 2018 |
| Docket Number | 525845 |
| Citation | 161 A.D.3d 1501,77 N.Y.S.3d 225 |
| Parties | In the Matter of the Claim of Rosemary RODRIGUEZ, Appellant, v. NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT AUTHORITY, Respondent. Workers' Compensation Board, Respondent. |
| Court | New York Supreme Court — Appellate Division |
161 A.D.3d 1501
77 N.Y.S.3d 225
In the Matter of the Claim of Rosemary RODRIGUEZ, Appellant,
v.
NEW YORK CITY TRANSIT AUTHORITY, Respondent.
Workers' Compensation Board, Respondent.
525845
Supreme Court, Appellate Division, Third Department, New York.
Calendar Date: May 1, 2018
Decided and Entered: May 31, 2018
Geoffrey Schotter, New York City, for appellant.
Foley, Smit, O'Boyle & Weisman, Hauppauge (Theresa E. Wolinski of counsel), for New York City Transit Authority, respondent.
Before: Garry, P.J., McCarthy, Devine, Aarons and Pritzker, JJ.
MEMORANDUM AND ORDER
Garry, P.J.
Appeal from a decision of the Workers' Compensation Board, filed January 17, 2017, which ruled that claimant's injuries did not arise out of and in the course of her employment and denied her claim for workers' compensation benefits.
Claimant was employed as a train conductor for the self-insured employer, assigned on weekends to the 180th Street station in New York City and scheduled to start her shift at 6:05 a.m. At 5:10 a.m. on Saturday, January 30, 2016, claimant was waiting for a train at a station through which she was passing en route to her assigned workplace, when another passenger asked to be admitted into the station without paying. After she told him that she could not open the gate to let him in, he jumped the turnstile and assaulted her, causing multiple injuries including to her face, head, neck and back. Claimant applied for workers' compensation benefits, which a Workers' Compensation Law Judge denied, finding that the injuries did not arise out of and in the course of her employment. Upon review, the Workers' Compensation Board, with one judge dissenting, affirmed. This appeal ensued.
"An injury is only compensable under the Workers' Compensation Law if it arose out of and in the course of a worker's employment and, in general, injuries sustained in the course of travel to and from the place of employment do not come within the statute" ( Matter of Carroll v. Fagan, Inc., 82 A.D.3d 1463, 1463, 919 N.Y.S.2d 235 [2011] [internal quotation marks and citations omitted]; see Workers' Compensation Law § 10[1] ; Matter of Pittner v. St. Gobain Corp., 144 A.D.3d 1348, 1348, 41 N.Y.S.3d 319 [2016], lv denied 29 N.Y.3d 919, 2017 WL 4051792 [2017] ). Injuries incurred while commuting to work are generally not covered because "the risks inherent in traveling to and from work relate to the employment only in the most marginal sense" ( Matter of Lemon v. New York Tr. Auth., 72 N.Y.2d 324, 326–327, 532 N.Y.S.2d 732, 528 N.E.2d 1205 [1988] [internal quotation
marks and citation omitted] ). There are...
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