Brian Durant v. Saturn Corporation

This workers' compensation appeal has been referred to the Special Workers' Compensation Appeals Panel of the Supreme Court in accordance with Tenn. Code Ann. 5-6-225(e)(3) to hear and report to the Supreme Court Findings of Fact and Conclusions of Law. Employee brought this action to recover workers' compensation benefits for injuries he sustained in an automobile accident on employer's premises after leaving the plant, but before arriving at the control gate to the Saturn complex. The trial court held that the injuries did not arise out of the employment and granted Saturn's Rule 41 motion to dismiss. We reverse the trial court and hold that the premises rule announced in Lollar v. Wal-Mart Stores, Inc., includes roads provided by the employer inside the access gate to the employer's industrial complex. We further hold that the injury arose out of the employment. We remand the case to the trial court for further proceedings consistent with our holdings. Tenn. Code Ann. Section 5-6-225(e) (1999); Appeal as of Right: Judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed and case is remanded. JOHN A. TURNBULL, Sp. J. in which FRANK DROWOTA C.J., and HOWELL N. PEOPLES, SP. J., joined. Larry R. Williams and A. Allen Smith, III, Nashville, Tennessee, for Appellant, Brian Durant. Thomas H. Peebles, IV, Tennessee, for Appellee, Saturn Corporation. Opinion This case requires us to interpret the "premises rule" laid down in Lollar v. Wal- Mart Stores, Inc., 767 S.W.2d 143 (Tenn. 1989) as extended by the Supreme Court in Copeland v. Leaf, Inc., 829 S.W.2d 14 (Tenn. 1992). To be compensable under our workers' compensation statute, an injury must be one "arising out of and in the course of employment." T.C.A. 5-6-12(a)(5) (1991). In Lollar, the Supreme Court examined the substantial body of case law governing workers' compensation liability when an employee is injured en route to or from work, and concluded that the previous set of guidelines as set down in Woods v. Warren, 548 S.W.2d 651 (Tenn. 1977) "had not proved workable" and had resulted in inequities. Lollar at p. 15. The court re-evaluated its previous adherence to the "unique minority rule" and instead adopted a premises liability standard employed by nearly all jurisdictions, see 1 Larson Workmen's Compensation Law 15.11 (1994). The Supreme Court held "that a worker who is on the employer's premises coming to or going from the actual work place is acting in the course of employment [and] that if the employer has provided a parking area for its employees, that parking area is part of the employer's premises regardless of whether the lot is also available to customers or the general public." 767 S.W.2d at 15. In Copeland, the Supreme Court extended the holding in Lollar and held "that employees who must cross a public way that bisects an employer's premises and who are injured on that public way while traveling a direct route between an employer's plant facility and parking lot are entitled to workers' compensation benefits." Copeland, 829 S.W.2d, at 144. The court in Copeland pointed out that the employer was responsible for creating the necessity for the employee to encounter the particular hazards of the trip between a non- contiguous parking lot and the working plant itself. Accordingly, the Supreme Court felt that an extension of the "premises rule" announced in Lollar was warranted. Id. Facts and Procedural Background Saturn maintains an industrial complex in Maury County where the corporation assembles Saturn motor vehicles. Saturn built and maintains roads in the complex leading from the entrance gate to the work plant. Saturn had posted a thirty- five mile speed limit on Ephlin Parkway as a safety regulation. On December 5, 2, at approximately 2: a.m., Brian Durant was leaving work from the power train plant, one of three main plant locations in the Saturn complex. Although Saturn had constructed other roads over which Durant could have traveled to reach the main Saturn gate and the public highway (U.S. 31), he chose to go his normal shortest route along Ephlin Parkway, one of the main traffic arteries within the complex. Durant, who had worked at Saturn for more than eight years, was traveling at what he -1-