Pennsylvania: Donut Shop Manager was Traveling Employee; Death Claim Not Barred by Going and Coming Rule

Where an employee worked as manager at one of the employer’s three donut shops, was occasionally required to respond to operational issues at the other two shops, and sustained fatal injuries in an vehicle accident as he traveled from his residence to one of the other shops to investigate and potentially fill in for a kitchen employee who had fallen ill during a work shift, the decedent was a traveling employee during his drive and his dependent’s death benefits claim was not barred by the going and coming rule. The court stressed that even if the decedent was considered a stationary employee, and not a traveling employee, the dependents’ claim would still be compensable, since the vehicle accident while the decedent was engaged in a special assignment on behalf of the employer.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is the co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Rana v. Workers’ Comp. Appeal Bd. (Asha Corp.), 2017 Pa. Commw. LEXIS 759 (Sept. 29, 2017)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 14.02.

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