Thompson v. CLEAR SPRINGS FOODS, INC.
| Decision Date | 16 March 2010 |
| Docket Number | No. 36159-2009.,36159-2009. |
| Parties | Judy THOMPSON, Claimant-Appellant, v. CLEAR SPRINGS FOODS, INC., Employer, Liberty Northwest Insurance Corporation, Surety, Defendants-Respondents. |
| Court | Idaho Supreme Court |
Dennis R. Petersen, Idaho Falls, for appellant.
E. Scott Harmon, Boise, for respondent.
This is an appeal from the denial of worker's compensation benefits for an injury that occurred when the claimant slipped and fell while walking down a county road to return to work after relocating her car from the employee parking lot to the top of a hill in order to avoid the risk of not being able to drive up the hill on the county road due to snow. We affirm the order of the Industrial Commission.
Judy Thompson (Claimant) had been employed by Clear Springs Foods, Inc. (Employer) for twelve years. She worked at its fish packaging facility located at the bottom of the Snake River canyon near Buhl, Idaho. The county road from the canyon rim down to Employer's facility was steep enough that Claimant had at times been unable to drive back up the road when it snowed. In mid-January 2008, she had to have other employees tow her car to the top of the grade, and about four times in prior years she had left her car in the canyon and had someone drive her home. When it snowed, Employer sometimes had obtained permission for its employees to leave on a private road. It also, at times, had used a backhoe to scrape loose snow from the roadway and had then spread sand on the road.
It was "snowy" when Claimant was driving to work on January 31, 2008. As she approached the canyon rim, she noticed that four cars were parked in a turnout off the county road. She continued on down the hill and parked in the employee parking lot. Her shift started at 10:00 a.m. She had a fifteen-minute break at 12:30 p.m., a thirty-minute lunch break at 3:30 p.m. or 4:00 p.m., and a fifteen-minute break at 6:00 p.m. Employer's written personnel policy permits employees to leave the premises during the fifteen-minute breaks only if they first obtain permission from a supervisor and then "punch-out" on their time cards when they leave and "punch-in" when they return.
During her second fifteen-minute break, Claimant decided to drive her car back up the hill and park it on the canyon rim where she had seen the other cars parked. She did not obtain permission from her supervisor before doing so, nor did she punch out. Likewise, she did not request that the Employer seek permission for employees to use the private road. After she had parked her car on the canyon rim, she began walking back down the county road to Employer's facility. It was about 120 yards from the canyon rim to the entrance of the employee parking lot. When she was about halfway there, she slipped and fell, injuring herself.
Employer's production supervisor testified that it was his understanding the road had been scraped and sanded that day, but he did not have any personal knowledge of whether it had been done. On February 23, 2008, he gave Claimant a written reprimand for "leaving the work premises without permission on 1/31/2008." The reprimand, which was signed by both the production supervisor and Claimant, recited:
Claimant filed a worker's compensation claim seeking benefits for her injury. The matter was tried before a referee, who made findings of fact and conclusions of law and recommended that the claim be denied. The Industrial Commission (Commission) adopted the referee's findings of fact and conclusions of law and ordered that "Claimant has failed to prove that she suffered an accident arising out of and in the course of her employment." Claimant then timely appealed.
The sole issue raised by Claimant on appeal is whether her actions in leaving Employer's premises to move her car to the top of the canyon rim fell within the personal comfort doctrine. Although this Court has not expressly addressed it, the personal comfort doctrine has been described as follows:
A class of activities widely recognized as "incidental" to employment are those acts engaged in by the employee to minister to his personal comfort. Such acts ordinarily include satisfying thirst or hunger, seeking fresh air, using the restroom, making telephone calls, and the like. An employee does not leave the course of employment by engaging in such acts unless the extent of the departure is so great that an intent to abandon the job temporarily may be inferred, or unless the method chosen is so unusual or unreasonable that the conduct cannot be considered an incident of the employment.
Kennecott Corp., Kennecott Minerals Co. Div. v. Industrial Commn. of Utah, 675 P.2d 1187, 1190 (1983) (footnote omitted).
"The general rule that compensation is not allowed to workers...
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