The Illinois Supreme Court’s first term in Chicago ends tomorrow morning with a busy docket of five civil arguments: Venture-Newberg Perini Stone and Webster v. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission; Schultz v. Performance Lighting, Inc.; Kanerva v. Weems; Rogers v. Imeri and American Access Casualty Co. v. Reyes. In Venture-Newberg, the Court will resolve a potentially important question for workers’ compensation law: is a short-term worker hired from a far-away union hall and staying in nearby temporary housing analogous for purposes of workers’ compensation to an employee traveling on the employer’s business? Our detailed summary of the facts and lower court opinions in Venture-Newberg is here.
A contractor was hired to perform maintenance and repair work at a nuclear plant more than 200 miles from Springfield. Because the nearby union local couldn’t fill all the jobs, openings were posted elsewhere, including at a Springfield hall. The claimant was hired, but he decided it was impractical to compute 200 miles back and forth each morning and night for the few weeks the job would last. So he found lodging about thirty miles from Cordova. He was injured early on the second day of the job while traveling from his lodging to the plant.
As a general rule, commuting injuries aren’t compensable under the Workers’ Compensation Act. The arbitrator originally decided that this case fell squarely under that rule and recommended that the claim be denied.
But the Commission reversed. Two exceptions to the general rule applied, according to the Commission. First, the Commission found that the claimant hadn’t been living where he was by his own choice; his “course or method of travel” was determined by the exigencies of the job. Second, the employee was a “traveling employee” – essentially, he was engaged in business travel. The Sangamon County Circuit Court reversed the Commission, setting aside the decision awarding benefits. The majority of the Appellate Court reversed the Circuit Court, once again reinstating the award over a dissent by Justice Hudson, with Justice Turner joining.
The employer may focus during the argument tomorrow on the testimony of the claimant and a fellow employee during the hearing. The claimant acknowledged that the employer hadn’t told him to find lodging nearby, or where to live, or what route to take into the plant, and he hadn’t been called in early on the day of the accident. A fellow employee conceded that the employer had never requested that employees find lodging nearby, but pointed out that working a 12-hour shift and then driving a 200-mile one-way commute wasn’t too practical, even for a job that would only last a few weeks. The employer may also echo Justice Hudson’s dissent, arguing that treating workers in the claimant’s position in the same way as workers traveling on business might create considerable exposure and uncertainty – would every employee hired from far away at a big job like the nuclear plant be a “traveling employee” for his or her daily commute? And if so, how far away was far enough? The Commission, on the other hand, is likely to argue the facts as well, echoing the Appellate Court’s conclusion that the employer had to not only know that short-term workers from far-off union halls would be staying somewhere nearby, but to desire that outcome.
We expect a decision in Venture-Newberg within two to four months.