Doris Phillips v. Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company of Rhode Island, LLC.

Syllabus

The petitioner, Doris Phillips, sought review on certiorari of a decree of the Appellate Division of the Workers' Compensation Court vacating a prior decree of a judge of the Workers' Compensation Court and denying and dismissing her petition for surviving-spouse compensation benefits and funeral expenses. The petitioner challenged the Appellate Division's finding that the going-and-coming rule precluded her recovery of benefits for the fatal injuries sustained by her husband, Joseph Phillips, while he was employed by the respondent, Enterprise Rent-A-Car Company of Rhode Island, LLC. The Supreme Court held that an existing exception to the going-and-coming rule, the Branco exception, should be expanded to include factual situations in which the risk of injury is created by the location of the parking facility, irrespective of whether the parking facility was owned or maintained by the employer, so long as the employer furnished it for employee parking. The Supreme Court concluded that petitioner had sufficiently established that the employer had furnished the parking lot for employee parking, and had also established the other elements of the Branco exception test, and therefore that recovery was not barred by the going-and-coming rule. Accordingly, the Supreme Court quashed the decree of the Appellate Division and remanded to the Appellate Division for it to reinstate the trial judge's decision.