Workers Compensation Decision Good For Injured Workers Who Travel For Employers

The Georgia Supreme Court issued a sharply divided ruling on Monday which is a great decision for employees who travel. The 4-3 decision turned on an interpretation of the “continuous employment” doctrine. The High Court upheld an award of workers’ compensation benefits to the 11 year old son of a man killed as a result of an automobile accident in Georgia. The employer had put the Florida resident up in an apartment in Fayetteville, Georgia while he was working as a construction superintendent here. The employer also provided him with a company truck that he was driving at the time of the accident. The employer and it’s workers insurer had denied the claim for death benefits on the ground that the employee was not acting in the course of his employment when the accident occurred. At the time of the accident, he was on sick leave and had been delivering family furniture to his storage shed in Alamo, Georgia.
Four of seven Justices on the Supreme Court of Georgia said that because King had returned to the general Fayetteville/Jackson area when he was killed in the motor vehicle accident, his minor son had a valid death claim.
The significance of this ruling is that it expands the “continuous employment” doctrine and makes it more likely that workers traveling away from home on business will be covered under their employers workers’ compensation insurance if they are injured.