Are You in or Out? An Overview of Ingress/Egress Injuries
By: Caley Pitts
If an employee’s job duties are contained to a fixed place of employment, an injury occurring while they are going to or coming from work is generally not compensable. However, one notable exception to this rule exists when an employee is engaged in reasonable ingress or egress. This exception applies when an employee is injured on the employer’s premises within a reasonable time from starting or stopping work. The determination of whether the employee’s claim is compensable under the ingress/egress exception depends on the facts of each case, and two of the biggest considerations are the timing and location of the injury.
Regarding the timing of the ingress/egress, there is no specifically required amount of time for the exception to apply. An Administrative Law Judge (ALJ) would look at the particular facts of the case to determine whether the timing is reasonable. In the past, Georgia courts have found compensability in cases in which an employee was injured 15 minutes after work ended and 30 minutes before work started. No maximum number of minutes or hours has been established, but in a rather old Georgia case, it was found an injury occurring two hours before work started was an unreasonable amount of time for ingress. Jackson v. Lumberman’s Mut. Cas. Co., 33 Ga. App. 35, 35–36, 125 S.E. 515 (1924).
Regarding location, if the injury occurs within a reasonable amount of time, an employee who is injured on the employer’s premises while going to or coming from work may be entitled to coverage under workers’ compensation. The ALJ would consider the case-specific circumstances to make a determination regarding whether a certain area qualifies as the employer’s premises. If an employee reports to a fixed place of employment, the employment premises would typically consist of the enclosed area or building in which the employee directly works (including a store, office, etc.).
The question of reasonable ingress/egress becomes more complicated when an office building, building complex or shopping center is involved, as the employee may have to travel though a common area (which is not owned or maintained by the employer) in order to arrive at their workstation. In past cases, injuries occurring in these shared areas have been found compensable if the route the employee uses to enter or leave the building is the only means of ingress or egress, or if it is one of two routes available. De Howitt v. Hartford Fire Ins. Co., 99 Ga. App. 147, 108 S.E.2d 280 (1959).
For purposes of workers’ compensation coverage, the employment premises also extend to parking lots that are owned, directed, controlled or maintained by the employer. As such, if an employee is injured in an employer’s parking area within a reasonable amount of time from the start or end of their work, they are likely eligible for benefits. This is the case even if the employer merely leases rather than owns the parking lot and is applicable even if the employer-controlled parking lot is open to the public. Similarly, if an employee is injured on an employer-controlled street during a reasonable period of ingress/egress, the injury is likely to be deemed compensable. Depending on the facts of the case, it could even be determined an employee sustained a compensable work-related injury on a public street if they were injured while going from an employer-designated parking area directly to their place of work.
Overall, the ingress/egress exception allows employees to receive workers’ compensation benefits when an injury occurs on the employer’s premises within a reasonable period of coming to or going from work, even if the employee is not working at the time of the injury. The facts will be reviewed by the ALJ on a case-by-case basis in order to decide if this exception applies, but the above should provide a general picture of ingress/egress in Georgia workers’ compensation claims and the main points that will be considered if an employee is injured while entering or leaving work. As with any claim, a thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the accident will help determine whether the accident qualifies for the exception, which can make a significant difference in the value of the claim and potential claim exposure.
Attorney Contact Info
Caley Pitts
caley.pitts@swiftcurrie.com
404.888.6111