The Court of Appeals of Virginia determined that the Virginia Workers’ Compensation Commission erred when they awarded a woman workers’ compensation benefits after she fell walking from a parking lot to mandatory off-site training for her employer. The lower court had determined her injuries arose out of her employment, which the Appeals Court reversed.

Hamel worked for the Department of Human Services for the City of Virginia Beach as a licensed professional counselor. She was required to go to a community college for an off-site mandatory training and she parked somewhat far away from the building where the training was held. She was walking and stepped over a curb into a grassy area with exposed tree roots. She tripped over the roots and injured her face, head, right shoulder, right wrist, right hand and cervical and lumbar regions. She filed for lifetime medical and temporary total disability benefits from August 1, 2016 (date of the incident) through December 16, 2016.

Initially the deputy commissioner determined that she could not prove her injuries arose out of a risk peculiar to her employment. There were other routes she could have taken, she was not mandated to park in the specific lot and there was nothing defective with the sidewalk. There was no link between her work conditions and her injury.

The Workers’ Compensation Commission reversed that decision, rejecting the “going and coming rule” and instead applying the “special errand” exception to her incident. She was in the course of her employment because she was required to be at the off-site training. The Court of Appeals reversed that ruling. They could not establish a causal connection between a special risk to her employment with the City and her injury. Her risk of tripping was the same as any member of the public’s risk.

Read the case here.