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Dozier v. Mid-Del School System5/5/1998
Mandate Issued: July 24, 1998
RELEASE FOR PUBLICATION BY ORDER OF COURT OF CIVIL APPEALS DARRELL WAYNE DOZIER,Petitioner, v. MID-DEL SCHOOL SYSTEM and the WORKERS' COMPENSATION COURT, Respondents. PROCEEDING TO REVIEW AN ORDER OF THE WORKERS' COMPENSATION COURT
HONORABLE RICHARD G. MASON, JUDGE
VACATED AND REMANDED
MEMORANDUM
Claimant Darrell Wayne Dozier seeks review of an order of the Workers' Compensation Court which denied him benefits after finding that Claimant's injury - sustained while playing basketball at an evening fund-raising game for the Carl Albert basketball program - did not arise out of and in the course of his employment with Employer Mid-Del School System. Because we agree with Claimant that the undisputed evidence established that Employer derived substantial direct benefit from Claimant's participation in the fund-raising activities, we vacate the order.
The facts in this case are undisputed. At the time of trial, Claimant was beginning his seventh year with Employer as a teacher, baseball coach and assistant football coach. He was asked by the Carl Albert basketball coach to play in a basketball game to raise funds for the Carl Albert basketball program, as he had done on two previous occasions. After agreeing on cross-examination that he was not required or directed to play, Claimant testified that:
Well, at meetings we have always been encouraged to fund raise and participate in fund-raisers, because they told us our athletic programs are under funded and the only way that we're going to survive is to have fund-raisers. And they've encouraged us, the athletic director and school administration, encouraged us to have fund-raisers and to help the other programs when they do have their fund-raisers to help support." (Emphasis added).
The fund-raising event included a pre-game chili supper held in the school cafeteria and a basketball game pitting teachers, coaches and former Carl Albert athletes against a team made up of employees of a radio station. The basketball team booster club organized and officially sponsored the game. Both events were promoted within the school by announcements over the intercom, flyers distributed at school, and posters hung throughout the school, and the radio station promoted the events to the general public. Employer provided the gym, the basketball equipment, uniforms and lights. The principal supervised the activities, and two school employees kept score and announced the game. According to Claimant, he tore his Achilles tendon shortly after he began to play in the game.
Employer contended that Claimant was not injured in the course of employment because he was participating in a voluntary recreational, charitable activity. Recreational and social activities are within the course of one's employment: (1) when they occur on the premises during a lunch or recreation period as a regular incident of the employment; or, (2) when the employer, by expressly or impliedly requiring participation, or by making the activity part of the services of an employee, brings the activity within the orbit of the employment; or (3) when the employer derives substantial direct benefit from the activity beyond the intangible value of improvement in employee health and morale that is common to all kinds of recreation and social life. See Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. v. Williams, 1981 OK 147, 639 P.2d 1222; City of Oklahoma City v. Alvarado, 1973 OK 21, 507 P.2d 535; Warthen v. Southeast Oklahoma State University, 1981 OK CIV APP 76, 641 P.2d 1125.
The three factors are formulated in the disjunctive and are generally independent alternatives. Se
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