Duncan

We granted a writ of review in order to determine whether the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (board) properly applied the “going and coming rule” and the “personal comfort doctrine.” Concluding that the board erred in its decision to deny compensation, we annul its order.

In relevant part the factual background is as follows.

Ida Mae Duncan worked for Greyhound Temporary Personnel (Greyhound) as the bookkeeping manager of its San Francisco office. She was a salaried employee, paid for an eight and one-half hour workday during which she was supposed to have two short breaks and a third, half-hour break for lunch. The evidence shows her to have been the person in charge of the San Francisco office.

In practice, Mrs. Duncan seldom if ever took the short breaks, and only occasionally took time off for lunch, “[b]ecause usually there wasn’t time, just always questions coming up and phones ringing.”

On April 9, 1981, as Mrs. Duncan put it, “nothing was balancing, there was quite a few phone calls [sic] with problems and ... it was just very hectic,” and she had worked continuously from before her normal starting time of 8:30 a.m. until about 12:45 p.m. At that time,…