Part III - Iowa Workers' Compensation - The Going and Coming Rule
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C. Employer's Assumed Obligation Exception.
If the employer assumes responsibility to furnish transportation to and from the job site the going and coming rule will not prevent an injury from being compensable. In Pribyl v. Standard Elec. Co., 67 N.W. 2d 438 (Iowa 1954) the claimant was traveling to a job site in his own vehicle, under his own control, being paid eight cents per mile for a fifty four mile round trip under a written agreement between the union he belonged to and the employer that had hired him through the union hall. The original agreement had required the employer to furnish transportation of all men for jobs outside of Linn County. The modified agreement required the payment of mileage for this one particular job. The employer did not want the responsibility and expense of arranging for twenty-five men to travel from Linn County to Johnson County. The Court agreed with the Industrial Commissioners construction of the contract. "It construed the contract as singular and not separate and distinct, as simply further providing how the employer would carry out his obligation to provide transportation." The Court held the employer had the obligation to provide transportation. To fulfill its obligation it negotiated to pay mileage. That mileage payment did not relieve the employer of the transportation obligation. The obligation to furnish transportation existed irrespective of the payment of mileage expense. The court goes on to point out, the fact employees were not getting paid for the time it took to travel, was not dispositive; nor would it be dispositive if the employer were not paying mileage expense. That thought is borne out by the court in the Medical Associates Clinic, P.C. v. First Nat'l Bank, 440 N.W. 2d 374 (Iowa 1989) case. What the Court seems to be saying is that the employer had assumed the responsibility for transportation of workers and the way it is carried out is not dispositive of the issue. It should be noted this was a death claim by the widow.
In Pribyl there is language that should not be ignored. The Court cautioned, after citing several cases where the employer merely paid the costs of transportation, that an injury occurring during the journey has often been held one not arising out of and in the course of employment. Id. at 444. "It must be conceded that there must be something more than mere payment of such transportation costs. We have more here. The facts and circumstances clearly disclose that the employer paid the eight cents per mile for fifty four miles as a means of carrying out its obligation to furnish transportation to and from Coralville. There was no gratuity." Id. at 444.
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Another situation arises when the employer provides the transportation or a supervisor rides along and either drives or directs the trip. In Johnson v. Farmer, 537 N.W.2d 770, 772 (Iowa 1995) the court stated: "A leading expert in the field of workers' compensation law has expressed the view that, when an injury occurs while a worker is being transported to an intended place of employment in a vehicle owned by the employer, the latter's control over that situation makes the vehicle an extension of the work place. 1 Arthur Larson, Larson's Workmens' Compensation Law Sec. 17.00, at 4-209 (1995). We believe that this principle holds true irrespective of how the employee's compensation is measured. It is particularly true where, as here, a supervisory employee of the injured person's employer is, on the employer's behalf, directing the route and operation of the vehicle." The Court found the injury occurred within the course of employment when the injured person was being driven by his foreman in the employer's truck to a site where the injured worker and his foreman were to perform measurements necessary for work to be commenced at a later time. Neither the foreman nor the injured worker was to be compensated for the travel or the measuring activities. Id. at 772.
For more information on this subject, please refer to the section on Worksite Injury and Workers Compensation.