State Compensation Insurance v. Workmen's Compensation Appeals Board

Petitioner carrier seeks review of a decision of the Workmen's Compensation Appeals Board upholding an award of compensation to James M. McGrew, a 33-year-old San Jose police officer who sustained injury in an accident while driving to work in his own automobile. Petitioner contends that the injury did not arise out of and in the course of his employment and that the award should be annulled.

The board, in denying the carrier’s petition for reconsideration, con- eluded that because the applicant was traveling conspicuously on a public street, in uniform, carrying his pistol, and ready to render assistance to members of the public in the field of law enforcement, if needed, he was engaged “ ‘in conduct reasonably directed toward the fulfillment of his employer’s requirements, performed for the benefit and advantage of the employer,’ ” and that the injury was compensable under the exception to the going and coming rule established in Garzoli v. Workmen’s Comp. App. Bd. (1970) 2 Cal.3d 502 [ 86 Cal.Rptr. 1 , 467 P.2d 833 ],

We summarily denied the carrier’s petition for a writ of review. The Supreme Court granted a hearing, transferred the cause, and then retransferred the…