METROPOLITAN DADE COUNTY, SELF-INSURED, APPELLANT,
v.
ANGEL NIEVES, APPELLEE
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This case addresses whether a police officer injured while retrieving a newspaper during his commute to work is entitled to workers' compensation benefits under the "police officer exception" to the going and coming rule. The court affirmed the deputy commissioner's award of benefits, holding that officers en route to work are within the course and scope of employment and minor deviations do not defeat that status.
A police officer en route to work is within the course and scope of employment and entitled to workers' compensation benefits. Although retrieving the newspaper constituted a deviation, it was not substantial enough to amount to abandonment of employment duties and therefore did not remove the officer from the scope of employment.
[1] A police officer is not subject to the general going and coming rule for workers' compensation purposes because they are considered continuously entrusted with duties and…
[2] A police officer en route to begin their regular duties is within the course and scope of employment, as they are still charged with a duty or task connected therewith.
Previewing 2 of 3 headnotes on this case. FLexlaw’s editorially structured points of law — every proposition, pinpointed — are reserved for members.
Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligence“a police officer is not representative of the ordinary workman going to work; rather, the police officer was found to be "continuously entrusted with certain duties" and "on guard twenty-four hours a day."”
Establishes the foundational rationale for the police officer exception to the going and coming rule
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Join FLexlaw to unlock all legal intelligenceMetropolitan Dade County police officer Angel Nieves was injured while commuting to work. After backing his van down his driveway to the street edge, …
The full statement of facts, procedural history, and disposition for this case are member content.
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[*435] WIGGINTON, Judge.
The issue on appeal addresses the “police officer exception” to the going and coming rule. The county argues that the deputy commissioner erred in finding claimant’s injury to be compensable, as occurring in the course and scope of his employment. We affirm.
Police officer Nieves is employed by Metropolitan Dade County. On the morning of the accident, he left his home to proceed to work. He backed his van down the driveway to the edge of the street where he stopped to avoid hitting the newspaper delivery car. Deciding to save his wife some extra steps on a cold morning, officer Nieves placed his van in park, quickly jumped out to retrieve the newspaper a few feet away in the swale, and threw it over the fence to his front porch. The foregoing activity took seconds to accomplish. However, before officer Nieves could return to the van, it “popped out of gear” and began to circle slowly backwards. In his attempting to jump back into the van to stop its movement, officer Nieves was knocked down by the open door, whereupon the van rolled over his ankle.
The deputy commissioner awarded temporary total disability benefits and the payment of medical bills finding that officer Nieves, by proceeding to work, was in the course and scope of his employment, and his retrieving the newspaper, if a deviation, was not a deviation so substantial as to take him out of the course and scope of his employment.
The supreme court in the seminal case of Sweat v. Allen, 145 Fla. 733, 200 So. 348 (1941), recognized that a police officer is not representative of the ordinary workman going to work; rather, the police officer was found to be “continuously entrusted with certain duties” and “on guard twenty-four hours a day.” Id. at 200 So. 350. Therefore, the court held that a police officer’s entitlement to workers’ compensation benefits is not constrained by the general going and coming rule. Instead, an officer en route to begin the performance of his regular duties is within the course and scope of his employment, as he is “still charged with a duty or task connected therewith.” Id. 200 So. at 351; accord Warg v. City of Miami Springs, 249 So. 2d 3 (Fla.1971).
In the instant case, officer Nieves was en route to begin performance of his duties and was in a place and position to discharge his primary responsibilities. Warg v. City of Miami Springs. He was, therefore, within the course and scope of his employment. Although his retrieving the newspaper did constitute a deviation, it was not so substantial as to amount to an abandonment of his employment duties. Cf. Times Publishing Co. v. Walters, 382 So. 2d 720 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980) (claimant’s “horseplay” constituted a momentary deviation).
AFFIRMED.
ROBERT P. SMITH, Jr. and BOOTH, JJ., concur.
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City OF Fort Lauderdale v. Abrams, 561 So. 2d 1294 (Fla. 1st DCA 1990)…er that the accident did arise out of and in the course and scope of claimant’s employment on the authority of Sweat v. Allen, 145 Fla. 733, 200 So. 348 (1941); Warg v. City of Miami Springs, 249 So. 2d 3 (Fla.1971); and Metro-Dade County v. Nieves, 440 So. 2d 434 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983). [*1295] In Sweat v. Allen, the Supreme Court held that injuries sustained by a deputy sheriff, while waiting for a bus on his way to work, were compensable under workers’ compensation. The Court noted the general rule that injur…
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Metro. Dade Cnty. v. Rudoff, 544 So. 2d 1118 (Fla. 3d DCA 1989)…ion Law, chapter 440, Florida Statutes. Relying upon case law which has construed portal to portal injuries as occurring within the course and scope of employment, Sweat v. Allen, 145 Fla. 733, 200 So. 348 (1941); Metropolitan Dade County v. Nieves, 440 So. 2d 434 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983), the trial court ordered the county to approve retroactively the officers’ applications for short-term disability benefits. We find that the trial court erred as a matter of law in entering summary judgment in favor of the PBA,…
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Gilreath v. Charlotte Cnty. Bd. OF Cnty. Comm'rs & Executive Risk Consultants, 610 So. 2d 88 (Fla. 1st DCA 1992)…, 170 So. 2d 445 (Fla.1964); and McNew v. Southern Intermodal Logistics, 380 So. 2d 1145 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980). Because the E/C presented no evidence of a subsequent substantial deviation, the claim was compensable. Metropolitan Dade County v. Nieves, 440 So. 2d 434, 435 (Fla. 1st DCA 1983). We reject the E/C’s contention that section 440.091, Florida Statutes, requires affirmance. Claimant’s status as a law enforcement officer does not diminish his rights under the Workers’ Compensation Act. The order below…
Authorities Cited
- Sweat v. Allen, 145 Fla. 733 (Fla. 1941)
- Times Publ'g Co. & R. P. Hewitt & Assocs. v. Walters, 382 So. 2d 720 (Fla. 1st DCA 1980)
- Warg v. City OF Miami Springs, 249 So. 2d 3 (Fla. 1971)