Walls v. Industrial Com'n of Utah

• Decision Date: 29 July 1993
• Docket Number: No. 920499-CA,920499-CA
• Parties: Jacqui C. WALLS, Petitioner, v. The INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF UTAH; Uninsured Employers' Fund; and Uncle Barts, Respondents.
• Court: Utah Court of Appeals

Page 964

857 P.2d 964

Jacqui C. WALLS, Petitioner, v. The INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF UTAH; Uninsured Employers'

Fund; and Uncle Barts, Respondents.

No. 920499-CA.

Court of Appeals of Utah.

July 29, 1993.

Robert Breeze, Salt Lake City, for petitioner.

Benjamin A. Sims and Thomas C. Sturdy, Salt Lake City, for respondents.

Before JACKSON, ORME and RUSSON, JJ.

RUSSON, Associate Presiding Judge:

Jacqui C. Walls appeals a final order of the Industrial Commission of Utah denying her workers' compensation benefits under

Utah Code Ann. § 35-1-45 (1988). We affirm.

FACTS

On December 29, 1989, Walls was employed as a bartender at Uncle Barts, an Ogden bar. Following her daytime shift, which ended at 5:00, she remained at the bar to socialize, shoot pool and drink beer. Sometime between 10:30 p.m. and 11:00 p.m., approximately six hours after her shift had ended, Walls became aware that a keg of beer was empty. Without being asked to do so, Walls went into the back room to prepare another keg to be tapped. As she opened the door to the refrigerator where the kegs were stored, a keg slid out and crushed her foot.

Seeking compensation for her sustained injuries, Walls filed an application for a hearing before an administrative law judge (ALJ) of the Industrial Commission of Utah on March 27, 1990. Following the hearing, the ALJ denied Walls's claim, holding that her injury did not "arise out of and in the course of" her employment, as to meet the requirements of Utah Code Ann. § 35-1-45 (1988). Walls thereafter filed a request for review by the Industrial Commission, which request was denied.

The sole issue presented for review is whether the Industrial Commission properly denied Walls workers' compensation benefits pursuant to Utah Code Ann. § 35-1-45 (1988).

STANDARD OF REVIEW

The Utah Administrative Procedures Act (UAPA) applies to all proceedings commenced on or after January 1, 1988. Utah Code Ann. § 63-46b-22(2) (1989). Thus, we review Walls's appeal under post-UAPA law.

Utah Code Ann. § 63-46b-16(4) (1989) provides:

The appellate court shall grant relief only if, on the basis of the agency's record, it determines that a person seeking judicial review has been substantially prejudiced by any of the following:

. . . . .

(d) the agency has erroneously interpreted or applied the law....

As to the application of this section, we have stated:

With the adoption of UAPA, deference to an agency's statutory construction should be given only "when there is a grant of discretion to the agency concerning the language in question, either expressly made in the statute or implied from the statutory language." Morton Int'l v. Auditing Div. of the Utah State Tax Comm'n, 814 P.2d 581, 589 (Utah 1991). Where there exists a grant of discretion, "we will not disturb the Board's application of its factual findings to the law unless its determination exceeds the bounds of reasonableness and rationality." Pro-Benefit Staffing v. Board of Review, 775 P.2d 439, 442 (Utah App.1989). "[A]bsent a grant of discretion, a correction-of-error standard is used in reviewing an agency's interpretation or application of a statutory term." Morton, 814 P.2d at 588....

Cross v. Industrial Comm'n, 824 P.2d 1202, 1204 (Utah App.1992); accord Uintah Oil Ass'n v. County Bd. of Equalization, 853 P.2d 894, 894-96 (Utah 1993); Horton v. Utah State Retirement Bd., 842 P.2d 928, 931 (Utah App.1992); Mor-Flo Indus., Inc. v. Industrial Comm'n, 817 P.2d 328, 330 (Utah App.1991), cert. denied, 843 P.2d 516 (Utah 1992).

The relevant portion of the statute at issue here, Utah Code Ann. § 35-1-45 (1988), reads:

Each employee ... who is injured ... by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, wherever such injury occurred, ... shall be paid compensation for loss sustained on account of the injury ... and such amount for medical, nurse, and hospital services and medicines ... as provided in this chapter.

We have previously held that section 35-1-45 (1988) does not expressly or impliedly grant the Commission discretion

to interpret or apply the language of that section. Cross, 824 P.2d at 1204; accord King v. Industrial Comm'n, 850 P.2d 1281, 1292 (Utah App.1993). Accordingly, we review the ALJ's interpretation of "arising out of and in the course of" under Utah Code Ann. § 63-46b-16(4)(d) (1989) for correctness. See King, 850 P.2d at 1292; Cross, 824 P.2d at 1204.

ANALYSIS

In order to qualify for workers' compensation benefits under Utah Code Ann. § 35-1-45 (1988), Walls has the burden of establishing: (1) that the subject injury occurred "in the course of" her employment, and (2) that the injury "arose out of" such employment. See Martinson v. W-M Ins. Agency, Inc., 606 P.2d 256, 258 (Utah 1980). Moreover, Walls must prove both of these requirements by a preponderance of the evidence. Lipman v. Industrial Comm'n, 592 P.2d 616, 618 (Utah 1979). Under the facts of this case, we hold that Walls failed to establish that her injury occurred within the course of her employment. ¹

In M & K Corp. v. Industrial Comm'n, 112 Utah 488, 189 P.2d 132 (Utah 1948), the Utah Supreme Court held that the words, "in the course of," refer to the time, place and circumstances under which an injury occurred. Id. 189 P.2d at 134. The court stated:

[T]he requirement that the accident arise in the course of the employment is satisfied if it occurs while the employee is rendering service to his employer which he was hired to do or doing something incidental thereto, at the time when and the place where he was authorized to render such service.

Id.; accord 82 Am.Jur.2d, Workers' Compensation § 266 (1992); Maher v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Bd., 33 Cal.3d 729, 661 P.2d 1058, 1060, 190 Cal.Rptr. 904, 906 (1983); Martin v. Kralis Poultry Co., Inc., 12 Ill.App.3d 453, 297 N.E.2d 610, 616 (1973); Indiana & Mich. Elec. Co. v. Morgan, 494 N.E.2d 991, 994 (Ind.App.1986); Newman v. Bennett, 212 Kan. 562, 512 P.2d 497, 501 (1973); Lisonbee v. Chicago Mill & Lumber Co., 278 So.2d 5, 7 (La.1973); Wiley Mfg. Co. v. Wilson, 280 Md. 200, 373 A.2d 613, 616 (Md.1977); Gallimore v. Marilyn's Shoes, 292 N.C. 399, 233 S.E.2d 529, 531 (1977); Graybeal v. Board of Supervisors, 216 Va. 77, 216 S.E.2d 52, 54 (Va.1975).

Thus, an injury occurs "in the course of" employment when it takes place (1) within the period of employment, (2) at a place where the employee reasonably may be in the performance of her duties, and (3) while she is fulfilling those duties or engaged in doing something incidental thereto. 82 Am.Jur.2d, Workers' Compensation § 266 (1992); see also 1 Arthur Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law § 14.00 (1993) ("The course of employment requirement ... demands that the injury be shown to have arisen within the time and space boundaries of the employment, and in the course of an activity whose purpose is related to the employment."); Blade v. Mervis, 226 So.2d 552, 555 (La.App.) (requirement that injury occur within the course of employment means that it must occur during the hours of employment, which include a reasonable time before or after work, and not at any other time), cert. denied, 254 La. 1100, 229 So.2d 113 (La.1969); Reis v. Douglas County Hosp., 193 Neb. 542, 227 N.W.2d 879, 885 (1975) (for purposes of workers' compensation, employee must establish a temporal nexus to the employment); Graybeal, 216 S.E.2d at 54 (requirement that injury occur in the course of employment must be satisfied by showing an unbroken course beginning with work and ending with injury under circumstances that the beginning and end are connected parts of a single work-related incident). Moreover, all three criteria of time, place and circumstances must be fulfilled in order for a claimant to recover workers' compensation benefits.

Brown v. Jim Brown's Serv. Station, 45 N.C.App. 255, 262 S.E.2d 700, 702 (1980).

Because there are no cases in Utah "on all fours" with the case at bar, we look to courts in other jurisdictions that have addressed this particular question. Those courts have consistently held that employees who remain on the work premises following their employment for their own social purposes are not entitled to workers' compensation benefits. See, e.g., Lemmon v. Industrial Comm'n, 154 Ariz. 63, 740 P.2d 484, 486-87 (Ariz.App.1986); American Legion Post No. 30 v. Gailey, 498 So.2d 1321, 1323 (Fla.App.1986), review denied, 508 So.2d 13 (Fla.1987); Lona v. Sosa, 420 N.E.2d 890, 894-95 (Ind.App.1981); Blade, 226 So.2d at 556-57; Emmel v. State Compensation Director, 150 W.Va. 277, 145 S.E.2d 29, 33-34 (1965).

American Legion Post No. 30 v. Gailey is representative of these cases and particularly applicable to the case at bar. In that case, an off-duty bartender remained at his place of employment following his shift to drink and socialize. A fight broke out between customers at the bar, and Gailey intervened to "further the business reputation and interests of his employer." American Legion Post No. 30, 498 So.2d at 1322. The hearing officer awarded him workers' compensation benefits, but the Florida Court of Appeals reversed, holding that "when the employee for a substantial amount of time before leaving is engaged in an unmistakably personal pursuit, such as ... drinking, the interlude is not within the course of employment." Id. at 1322-23 (quoting 1A Arthur Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law § 26.10 (1985)). Thus, the court of appeals reasoned that, notwithstanding the fact that Gailey intervened in the fight for the benefit of his employer, at the time of the injury, Gailey had concluded the course of his employment and was drinking as a paying customer for personal reasons, and therefore denied coverage. Id. at 1323.

The West Virginia Supreme Court of Appeals's decision in Emmel v. State Compensation Director is also instructive. In that case, a brewery employee who remained at work after hours to drink and socialize was held not to be in the course of his...