Workers Comp

Hotel fall for traveling employee doing his laundry not compensable

Louise Esola

April 08, 2020 Reprints

Claims Disputes Workers Comp Coverage More + Less -

A traveling employee who slipped and fell in a hotel lobby while retrieving his laundry is not eligible for worker compensation benefits because in part he could not prove he needed to do laundry as part of his work trip, an appeals court in North Carolina ruled Tuesday.

In 2013, Jerry McSwain was traveling as part of a project for his employer Industrial Commercial Sales & Service LLC when he completed his work a day early. The company opted to keep the work crew on site as it would have cost the company $2,400 to change flights, according to documents in Jerry McSwain v. Industrial Commercial Sales & Service LLC, AIG/Chartis Claims Inc., filed in the Court of Appeals of North Carolina in Raleigh.

During what was deemed a “free day” on the day proceeding his travel home he slipped and fell on a wet spot in the hotel lobby while retrieving his laundry, moments after he “visited with other co-workers on the hotel patio consuming alcohol,” documents state.

Following his employer’s denial of his claim and appeal, both a deputy commissioner and the full state Workers’ Compensation Commission ruled his injury did not arise within the scope of his employment because, as the commission wrote, "Plaintiff has failed to prove a causal relationship between walking through the hotel to check on his laundry and his employment."

While the appeals court found that some injuries suffered by traveling employees are compensable under state case law, Mr. McSwain’s injury did not meet the bar for proving his doing laundry was necessary.

In affirming, the appeals court wrote: “There was no finding, much less evidence to support a finding, that Plaintiff had run out of clean clothes to necessitate a need to laundry to provide clean clothes during the remainder of the business trip.”