Atiles Moréu v. Industrial Commission
Atiles Moréu v. Industrial Commission
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is a petition of the Manager of the State Fund to review an order of the Industrial Commission granting com
Pedro J. Arroyo was a schoolteacher with two contracts with the Department of Education. Pursuant to one contract, he taught school inthe town of Peñuelas. His duties kept him in that town, where he was required to reside, until approximately five p. m. His other contract was to teach at night from 7 to 9 p. m. in a rural school about four kilometers from his residence. To reach this rural school, Arroyo had to travel a public road over which no form of public transportation — not even “public cars” — was available. He therefore made the trip back and forth on his own bicycle.
We have held, in accordance with the general rule elsewhere, that going to and from work is, under ordinary circumstances, not activity within the scope of employment, and that injuries incurred while thus engaged are therefore not compensable (Guillot v. Industrial Commission, 60 P.R.R. 658. To the same effect, Patton Park v. Anderson, 51 N. E. (2d) 877, 881; Voehl v. Indemnity Ins. Co., 288 U. S. 162, 169; Campbell, Workmen’s Compensation, Yol. I, §168, pp. 146-9). But those cases do not apply here. Another principle, which we stated in discussing a somewhat different situation in Bacó v. Industrial Commission, 52 P.R.R. 836, comes into play on the facts herein. That is to say, “If the work of the employee creates the necessity for travel, he is in the course of employment. . . ”
We recognize the dangers of departing from the “coming and going” rule. We do not regard this case as opening the door to deviation from that rule. We hold only that the schoolteacher under these particular circumstances had, at least for his night job, an occupation which required him to travel as part of Ms occupation, and not simply to come to work and to go home.
The order to the Industrial Commission will be affirmed.
The principle enunciated in Cordero, Mgr., v. Industrial Commission, 60 P.R.R. 851, is not involved herein, as the employer neither furnishes nor pays for the transportation of its employees to and from their work.
Bacó v. Industrial Commission, supra, at p. 842, quoting from Judge Cardozo in Marks’ Dependents v. Gray, 167 N.E. 181, 182 (N.Y., 1929).
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.