June 17, 2024

3 Stonedeggs, Inc. v. Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board 

Under the “commercial traveler” rule, an employee whose work requires travel away from the employer’s premises is covered by workers’ compensation for any injuries the employee sustains both during the travel and during other personal activities “reasonably necessary for the sustenance, comfort, and safety of the employee.”

An employee of a mobile food service provider working at a remote location was injured in a car accident while he was off work. The employer denied the employee’s claim for workers’ compensation.

The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board held the employee’s claim was covered under the commercial traveler rule.

The Court of Appeal affirmed, noting that “[a]n employee out of town on a temporary duty assignment is a commercial traveler, but an employee who is out of town on a quasi-permanent assignment is not.” Here, the court held the employee was a commercial traveler because his travel was not an ordinary, daily, local commute to a fixed place of employment, he was required to reside at the workplace away from his home for a limited duration, and he and his employer intended that he would return to reside at his home after completion of the assignment.