This case out of West Virginia is interesting because it deals with a situation that some courts are split on. If you are injured or killed on the job can you get comp simply because if it had not been for your employment you would have not have hurt yourself? Sometimes I have seen courts decide that the person would not have been injured had they not been at work and awarded them comp benefits, and other times I have seen the courts decide that the person should not get benefits even though they were at work.

This case decided that the family of a taxi driver, who was killed in her cab, should not be awarded death benefits on her behalf.

Kerri Hager worked for Cimarron Coach of Virginia, Inc. and drove a taxi cab. On May 17, 2009 a passenger, Dennis Lamar Sampson Jr., shot and killed her. He testified that Hager knew him and had a relationship with him that was drug-related; they would sell to each other or buy from each other. On this particular trip the “deal went wrong” and Sampson, who said he was trying to shoot Hager’s boyfriend who was also in the cab, shot Hager accidentally and killed her. Hager’s boyfriend, Rufus Walker, told a slightly different story and said he was not sure they had ever bought drugs from Sampson and that Sampson killed Hager in an attempt to recoup another debt.

Her family filed a workers’ comp claim on behalf of her children, who were minors. They said her death occurred as a result of her employment but the original claims administrator said Hager was involved in criminal activity outside of work and her death was not within the scope of her employment.

The employer noted that it was against policy to have any passengers in the cab besides a paying customer and to not pick up people off the street without dispatch calling them to tell them a customer was waiting there. On the day of the shooting, Hager had called her manager to say she could not pick up any more customers as she had a sick child at home, which turned out to be untrue, and it was discovered that she had cocaine and Oxycodone in her system when she died.

The Office of Judges decided that her death was not a result of her employment. She had refused to take any more fares that day and was not driving any paying customers when she died. She was involved in illegal activities at the time as well which were definitely not employment related. They affirmed the Board of Review’s decision not to award her beneficiaries compensation.