Reynolds v. School Dist. of Omaha

White, J.,

dissenting.

The majority here approves a most peculiar decision of the Workers’ Compensation Court. All agree that the trip to Lincoln was in the scope of employment and that the trip to Omaha was covered until a point at Interstate 680 and Pacific Street, where, instead of proceeding east on Pacific Street to her home, the employee continued on 1-680 to Dodge Street in a direct route to her place of employment, Monroe Junior High School. The journey into and out of a parking lot adjacent to Dodge Street should be disregarded as a minor deviation not contributing to the accident and injuries.

At the moment the employee passed the eastbound exit on Pacific Street, the fickle arms of the compensation act were withdrawn, to embrace again the employee the moment she entered Monroe Junior High. Although the employer argues in its brief that the employee’s duties did not require her to return to Monroe, it conceded in oral argument that her presence was within the scope of employment and any injuries occurring at the school would have been compensable. No similar factual situation has been presented to us for determination.

It seems to me that the compensation court could have chosen three separate dispositions and, with those options, chose the least defensible, fair, and beneficent. The compensation court could have determined: (1) A trip by an employee for business of an employer, begun at the employee’s home, loses its business purpose when the employee returns to her principal place of employment; (2) a trip begun at the employee’s home continues its business purpose until the employee returns to her home, excluding any deviations for nonemployment purposes; or (3) a trip begun at the employee’s home loses its business purpose at any time when the return trip deviates from the “direct route” to the home, regardless of the business purpose of the continuation of the trip beyond the compensation court’s point of no financial return.

Obviously, I believe the second alternative is the most logical and more attuned to the beneficent intentions of the Legislature in the passage of the compensation act.