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A horse groomer was sent by his employer to New York from Kentucky to show horses.  The employer was Gaines-Gentry Thoroughbreds L.L.C. and Eaton Sales, both based in Lexington, Kentucky.  These two companies shared a common owner.

But while claimant Adan Mandujano was in Saratoga Springs, New York on his work assignment in August of 2007, he stayed on in Saratoga Springs after selling the horses for Gaines-Gentry/Eaton Sales for several days longer in order to take some personal time and to show other horses with another firm.   Gaines-Gentry/Eaton Sales did not provide Mandujano with return transportation.   They knew he was going to end his job there and then move on to another either personal venture or a job with someone else.  

But Gaines-Gentry/Eaton’s workers’ compensation liability did not end when the last horse was sold for them, perhaps to their lack of awareness.    The claimant, Mandujano, got a ride back from New York to Kentucky with a friend many days later, and on the ride home was involved in a car accident in which he sustained substantial injuries, including skull fractures, cervical and lumbar spine injuries, and dental injuries.   Mandujano filed a workers’ compensation claim with Gaines-Gentry/Eaton.

But Gaines-Gentry opposed Mandujano for workers’ comp and denied the claim.  Their argument was that the claimant’s job duties ended when he sold their horses in Saratoga Springs, New York.   If he moved on to spend personal time in Saratoga Springs, or chose to take on another job with another firm, he was no longer working for them.  His job assignment had ended.

But the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled last Thursday in a unanimous decision that Mandujano’s car accident was compensable under Gaines-Gentry’s workers’ compensation policy because it was Gaines-Gentry/Eaton that had requested him to take that trip for their business purposes and that the act of returning home was a “necessary and inevitable” act of returning from that trip.   It did not matter that the claimant took personal time or worked for somebody else before the inevitable act of returning home.

This precedent should tell all employers that if they started it, they have to end it, if they want to end their exposure, by bringing the employee home.   Liability in this case, according to this decision, extends out and is prolonged because the employee did not return home immediately after ending his job duties with the employer initiating the trip.  It’s clear by this decision that to allow an employee to intertwine personal activities, take on another job, and thus prolong a procured business trip by mixing in other exposures rather than ending it immediately back at home when the job is done, expands the initial procuring employer’s workers’ compensation liability. 

lonce@adjuster.com