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PESP/TSI Staffing v. Weese11/15/2002
oming rule for off premises injuries, among them the "special task" exception referred to in Mooney. After acknowledging the general rule and agreeing with Employer that the facts of this case are undisputed, Claimant identifies the question of law presented for our review, "did the trial court . . . correctly hold, as a matter of law, that [Claimant's] injury arose out of and in the course of his employment under the special task exception to the coming and going rule." (Emphasis added.) Therefore, we examine the facts in the light of that exception to the general rule and need not explore others not argued here or in the Workers' Compensation Court.
The applicability of the special task exception is ordinarily a question of fact. However, where the facts necessary to establish the special task exception are undisputed, a question of law is presented. Lucas v. Triad Drilling Company, 1998 OK 98, 969 P.2d 363. According to Mooney, the special task exception is applicable when the accidental injury is sustained while the employee is going to perform, or leaving after performing, a special task outside of his or her regular working hours and at the employer's request.
Claimant first argues that the out-of-state assignment itself constitutes a "special mission" because there had only been one other occasion during his three years of employment where he was requested to work out of town. He claims that " he trip to Wichita Falls, then, represented an out-of-the-ordinary special mission or task which he performed for the benefit of his employer." Claimant cites Austin Drilling Company v. Rice, 1980 OK CIV APP 28, 616 P.2d 446, and Oklahoma Natural Gas Company v. Williams, 1981 OK 147, 639 P.2d 1222, as support for the proposition that "when the type of work makes it necessary to drive and driving is viewed as a risk reasonably incident to the work, use of a vehicle owned by the employee or co-employee does not preclude compensation ."
Claimant has not cited any Oklahoma authority holding that traveling to a different city or state to do the same work the worker routinely performs, by itself, constitutes a special task or mission, and the two cases he cites as authority do not support his argument. In Austin, the payment of travel and travel expenses exception was determinative, and the special task exception was not even considered. In Williams, the claimant was injured in a car accident after attending the employer's Christmas party and while driving to a babysitter's house. After finding record support for implied compulsion and employer benefit for employee's attendance at that social/recreational event, the Williams Court considered the employer's deviation argument and held that the special task exception to the going and coming rule governed the case, explaining "[the claimant] undertook to attend the Christmas party in furtherance of his master's business, and as an incident of his employment. The travel bears all the indicia of special duty mission that lies outside the work routine - an off-premises mission with the attendant extra risk." (Emphasis added.) Williams, 1981 OK 147, , 639 P.2d at 1227.
For the special task or mission exception to apply, one must be performing extra work outside of regular working hours that is different from or unrelated to the work required in the usual and ordinary course of employment. See Harris v. LaQuinta, 1997 OK 50, 937 P.2d 89; Richardson v. Pitts, 1965 OK 174, 408 P.2d 327; Dawson v. Oklahoma City Casket Company, 1958 OK 29, 322 P.2d 642. When addressing the existence of an employer-employee relationship, the Court in Fluor Engineers & Contractors v. Kessler, 1977 OK 37, 561 P.2d 72, discussed the going and coming ru
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