In re Compensation of Castleton, 110519 ORWC, 18-03902

Case DateNovember 05, 2019
CourtOregon
71 Van Natta 1261 (2019)
In the Matter of the Compensation of W. LEIGH CASTLETON, Claimant
WCB No. 18-03902
Oregon Worker Compensation
November 5, 2019
          Pancic Law, Claimant Attorneys           Goehler & Associates, Defense Attorneys           Reviewing Panel: Members Woodford and Lanning.           ORDER ON REVIEW          Claimant requests review of Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) Ilias’s order that upheld the insurer’s denial of her head injury claim. On review, the issue is course and scope of claimant’s employment.          We adopt and affirm the ALJ’s order with the following supplementation.          The ALJ applied the “social or recreational activities” exclusion under ORS 656.005(7)(b)(B) to determine that claimant’s injury was not compensable because she fell in a parking lot after leaving her hotel room with a coworker to buy cigarettes.          On review, claimant contends that going out to buy cigarettes was not a social or recreational activity primarily for her own pleasure, because she was a traveling employee who was attending an out-of-state conference at the direction of (and for the benefit of) her employer. However, despite claimant’s “traveling employee” status, her injury is properly excluded from compensability under ORS 656.005(7)(b)(B). We reason as follows.          In Summer Cook, [69 Van Natta 1227], 1229 (2017), we explained that the “social or recreational activities” exclusion under ORS 656.005(7)(b)(B) applies to traveling employees. Thus, while claimant urges us to “look broadly” in defining the injury causing activity (i.e. claimant was attending an out-of-state work conference), ORS 656.005(7)(b)(B) directs us to examine the character of the activity that more proximately resulted in the claimant’s injury. Accordingly, we proceed to determine whether claimant’s activity of going out to purchase cigarettes should be excluded under ORS 656.005(7)(b)(B).          ORS 656.005(7)(b)(B) raises three questions: (1) whether the worker was engaging in or performing a “social or recreational activity”; (2) whether the worker was...

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