Hughes Aircraft Co. v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board

Opinion

DANIELSON, J.

Petitioners Hughes Aircraft Company and the Hartford Insurance Group seek review and annulment of the Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board order finding that applicant and respondent Gwendolyn Bell sustained an injury arising out of and in the course of her employment, as defined in Labor Code section 3600. We annul the order and remand the cause for further proceedings.

Applicant Gwendolyn Bell was employed by Hughes Aircraft Company (hereinafter employer) as a night-shift circuit controller. While attending a December 13, 1980, off-premises, off-duty Christmas party, she slipped and fell, incurring injuries.

Leo Hamilton, the night operations superintendent who organized the party, testified that such parties had been held since at least 1970, possibly as far back as 1965, during the majority of the 31 years he had been working at the plant and were 90 percent subsidized by the employer. Tickets to the

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event were sold by supervisors after a flyer was posted inviting the night-shift employees and their nonbusiness guests to attend. Attendance was wholly voluntary; an employee’s position was not enhanced by attendance; and no adverse consequences resulted from nonattendance. Many of the employer’s supervisors who interacted with the night-shift employees also attended.

The employer’s purpose in organizing the annual Christmas party was to foster “an atmosphere of togetherness as a shift.” Hamilton explained that the party afforded employees on the shift an opportunity to get together with each other, meet supervisors other than their own, and to talk about what happens in other parts of the plant.

Applicant testified that she believed she might be required to attend the party and that it would be good for her to meet other employees and converse informally with her supervisors. On cross-examination, she admitted that she attended the party voluntarily and that there was no pressure, requirement, or implied directive that she attend.

Both the board and the workers’ compensation judge found that applicant’s attendance at the party was voluntary and not required by the employer and that her testimony that she believed her attendance was required was unpersuasive; that if this were an employment related business activity, any limitation in former subdivision (h) of section 3600 of the Labor Code would not apply; and that Hamilton’s testimony established a direct benefit to the employer of a sufficient magnitude that the party constituted a business-related activity. It was therefore concluded that applicant’s attendance at the party constituted a “special errand” for her employer and that applicant sustained injuries arising out of and in the course of her employment.