Ohio: MapQuest Data Helps Prove Extent of Worker’s Deviation From Employment

A jury’s consideration of MapQuest data that showed that a pharmacy and a restaurant were more than eight miles apart was not error in spite of the fact that the data was not fully authenticated, held an Ohio appellate court.  The jury’s determination that the trip to the restaurant was a substantial enough deviation to remove the nursing director from the course and scope of his employment was, therefore, not error.  The evidence tended to show that the director dropped off the prescription, was told it would take 30 to 45 minutes to be filled and determined then to proceed to lunch.  He sustained injuries in an automobile accident as he drove back to a pharmacy to retrieve the prescription.  The appellate court held that even if the travel times in the MapQuest date were not fully authenticated, it amounted to harmless error; claimant did not object to the admission of the reports at the time of trial.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is a leading commentator and expert on the law of workers’ compensation.

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance. Bracketed citations link to lexis.com.

See Jones v. Multicare Health & Educ. Servs., 2014-Ohio-3724, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 3649 (Aug. 28, 2014)] [2014 2014-Ohio-3724, 2014 Ohio App. LEXIS 3649 (Aug. 28, 2014)]

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 17.01 [17.01]

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see http://www.workcompwriter.com/ohio-jury-uses-mapquest-data-to-help-establish-significance-of-claimants-deviation-from-employment/

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law.

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