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Wachs v. Workers' Compensation Appeal Board10/21/2005
Judith Wachs, appellee, is the widow of James Wachs who was killed in an automobile accident while driving a company vehicle on his way to work for appellant American Office Systems (AOS). Appellee filed a Workers' Compensation fatal claim petition seeking benefits. Appellant Donegal Insurance denied coverage, stating decedent was not in the course and scope of his employment at the time of the accident; he was merely en route to work, which typically is not compensable. See Peterson v. WCAB (PNR Nursing Agency), 597 A.2d 1116, 1119 (Pa. 1991) ("The general rule is that an employer is not liable to the employee for compensation for injuries received off the employer's premises while the employee is travelling to or from work.").
Decedent was an office equipment technician who had worked for AOS, but left for approximately three years to work for a competitor; he was recruited back to AOS in 1991. Decedent demanded, as a qualifying condition of his return to AOS, that he be provided a company car. See N.T. Hearing, 10/28/99, at 21 (VP of Service Operations: "The only way he would agree to come back to work for AOS, and it was perfectly clear, is that if he had a company car. Because of the fact, I don't even think he owned his own car at the time."). Decedent drove the provided vehicle from his first day of re-employment with AOS until the fatal accident; he took the vehicle home each night and drove it each morning to AOS's office or a scheduled appointment with a client.
At first, decedent's work schedule required him to be out of the office about 90% of the time. He typically received a service call list for the following day, and left from home in the company vehicle to the clients' locations; other times, he would receive an early morning call at home designating which locations he was to visit. This pattern continued until he was promoted to a supervisory position, after which his duties kept him at the home office most of the time; on the day of his death, decedent was traveling to AOS's home office to repair two fax machines a client had dropped off to be serviced.
Throughout his employment with AOS, decedent was paid an hourly wage which started at 8:00 a.m., and did not include transit time; he was required to be either at the office or at a client's location by 8:00 a.m. Decedent never carried a pager, company cell phone, nor was he on-call on a 24-hour basis. AOS provided decedent with a credit card to pay for the gas and repairs to the company vehicle. At the time of decedent's rehire, almost all AOS technicians were provided company cars; at the time of his death, decedent was the only technician still driving a company car.
After his death, his widow, filed a fatal claim petition. The Workers' Compensation Judge (WCJ) denied the petition, finding appellee failed to prove decedent was acting within the course and scope of his employment at the time of his death. The WCJ reasoned decedent was no longer a roving technician but a supervisor who spent most of his time at AOS's headquarters; decedent had a fixed place of employment. Further, the WCJ credited the testimony of decedent's immediate supervisor, who stated decedent had no client visits scheduled the day he died and was scheduled to fix two fax machines at the office that morning.
On appeal, the WCAB determined the WCJ's findings did not support a denial of benefits, and remanded for additional findings of fact and conclusions of law. The WCAB stated: "our independent review of the record reveals that too many of the findings of the WCJ do not appear to support his conclusions.." WCAB Opinion, 8/17/01, at 8. Additionally, the WCAB opined "it would appear that the agreement to
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