Workers Comp

Employee wins parking lot injury case on appeal

Danielle Ling

September 03, 2021 Reprints

Claims Disputes Workers Comp Coverage Workplace Safety More + Less -

An appeals court in Ohio on Thursday issued a reversal and remand of an earlier judgment in which an employee was denied workers compensation coverage after a fall in an employer-controlled parking lot while arriving at work.

Shonda Hicks, a licensed insurance adjuster at Safelite Group, filed a claim for benefits with the Ohio Bureau of Workers' Compensation for injuries to her left hip and lower back that she claimed she sustained in a fall on the office’s sidewalk entrance, according to documents filed in Hicks v. Safelite Group, Inc., filed in the Court of Appeals of Ohio, Tenth District in Franklin County, Ohio.

Ms. Hicks’ claim was denied on three occasions by the commission before a trial court judgment ruled against her. Ms. Hicks appealed, arguing the trial court erred in its summary judgment on two counts violating the state’s coming and going rule.

On appeal, Ms. Hicks argued that she met “the totality of the circumstances exception to the coming and going rule because it considered the lack of control and not the other factors of the exception,” documents state.

In reversing, the appeals court ruled “as a matter of law, Ms. Hicks was within the zone of employment when she slipped and fell in the parking lot adjacent to Safelite's leased office building. Consequently, Ms. Hicks' alleged injuries arose out of, and in the course of, her employment, and the trial court erred in determining Hicks is not entitled to participate in the workers' compensation fund,” court documents read.