PJC General Negligence 2024

W ORKERS ’ C OMPENSATION —C OURSE & S COPE OF E MPLOYMENT

PJC 17.7

Transportation or travel directed by employer. See SeaBright , 465 S.W.3d 637 Evans , 790 S.W.2d 302; Freeman v. Texas Compensation Insurance Co. , 603 S.W.2d 186 (Tex. 1980); Smith , 687 S.W.2d 69; United States Fire Insurance Co. v. Brown , 654 S.W.2d 566 (Tex. App.—Waco 1983, no writ). See also Newsom v. Ballinger I.S.D. , No. 03-07-0022-CV, 2007 WL 2066185 (Tex. App.—Austin July 17, 2007) (not designated for publication). Fixed place of employment. An employee can have more than one fixed place of employment, and that fixed place of employment can change according to the nature of his work. See Evans , 790 S.W.2d 304; Bissett v. Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n , 704 S.W.2d 335, 338 (Tex. App.—Corpus Christi–Edinburg 1986, writ ref’d n.r.e.). Transportation pursuant to express or implied requirements of employment. See the judicial construction of former Tex. Rev. Civ. Stat. art. 8309, §1b (now Tex. Lab. Code §401.011(12)), in Meyer v. Western Fire Insurance Co. , 425 S.W.2d 628 (Tex. 1968), cited in Aguirre v. Vasquez , 225 S.W.3d 744, 751 (Tex. App.—Houston [14th Dist.] 2007, no pet.); and Janak v. Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n , 381 S.W.2d 176 (Tex. 1964), cited in Brooks , 269 S.W.3d at 656. See also SeaBright , 465 S.W.3d at 642. Access doctrine. An employee who is injured during the ingress to or egress from work may be in the course of employment under the “access doctrine.” See Collins v. Indemnity Insurance Co. , No. 04-09-00671-CV, 2011 WL 1631590 (Tex. App.—San Antonio Apr. 27, 2011) (not designated for publication). See Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Rodriguez , 645 S.W.2d 534, 537–38 (Tex. App.—San Antonio 1982, writ ref’d n.r.e.), for application of the access doctrine in a multistoried building. See Turner v. Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n , 715 S.W.2d 52 (Tex. App.—Dallas 1986, writ ref’d n.r.e.), for the requirement that the injury must have been received within a rea sonable margin of time and space of the place where the work was required. In such cases, the following instruction may be given: An injury occurring while the employee is traveling to or from work is in the course of employment only if the employee is injured at a place where the employer has evidenced an intention that a par ticular route or area be used by the employee in going to or from work and where the route or area is owned by the employer or is so closely related to the employer’s premises as to be fairly treated as a part of the employer’s premises.

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