Nevada High Court Rules For Injured Workers
By Associated Press - August 3, 2005CARSON CITY, Nev. (AP) _ Employees injured while arriving or leaving their jobs may now qualify for workers' compensation benefits in some cases, under terms of two Nevada Supreme Court rulings.
In two cases decided Thursday, the high court modified a general "going and coming" rule that has prevented employees from getting workers' compensation for injuries sustained while traveling to or from work.
The court upheld the claim of Brenda Cotton, who was walking through the parking lot of the MGM Mirage in Las Vegas about 10 minutes before her scheduled shift. She tripped over a curb and suffered a broken ankle and torn ligament.
The state's high court also ruled that Susan Woodward was entitled to workers' compensation benefits when she tripped over a curb in a parking lot at the Adobe Mobile Station in Henderson where she worked. She suffered a shoulder injury.
Justices said Cotton showed that her injury occurred in the course of employment "because she was injured within a reasonable time before starting work."
Also, the court said Cotton demonstrated that her injury arose out of her employment "because she established the causal link between the injury and the workplace conditions or workplace environment."
In adopting a premises-related exception to the going-and-coming rule, justices said an employee injured on the employer's premises while going to and from work "within a reasonable interval before or after work may be entitled to workers' compensation."
Woodward, a cashier at the gas station, was reporting for work an hour early. Travelers Property Casualty denied her compensation claim, saying her injury was not in the course of employment and that she was not doing anything to benefit her employer.
The Supreme Court said Woodward had reported for work early for years and the same premises-related exception that applied to Cotton also applied to her case. | 
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