Mission Insurance v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

Mission Insurance Company (hereafter petitioner) seeks review of the opinion and decision, after reconsideration, of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (hereafter the Board) sitting en banc, which reversed the decision of a workers’ compensation judge. The judge had found that the multiple injuries sustained by respondent Jean Fitzgerald (hereafter applicant) in an automobile accident on September 8, 1975, did not arise out of or occur in the course of her employment.

The facts are not in dispute. Applicant, age 54, was employed as a controller by Hamerslag Equipment Company, whose workers’ compensation insurance was provided by petitioner.

The accident occurred during applicant’s lunch hour, one and one-half miles from the employer’s premises. Applicant was returning from lunch, driving her own automobile. She was not reimbursed for car expenses involved in going to and returning from lunch, nor was she compensated during her lunch period. She was not on a business errand for her employer when the accident happened.

The employer provided a lunch room for the use of its employees, but it was not equipped to serve any food. It was the practice of applicant and…