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Smith v. Hawai11/6/1995
OPINION OF THE COURT BY MOON, C.J.
In this workers' compensation case, respondent-appellant Myra P. Smith, employed by petitioner-appellee, employer/self-insured State of Hawai'i, Department of Labor and Industrial Relations (DLIR), suffered injuries while crossing a public street between her workplace at the DLIR's offices and the lot where she parked her car. Smith applied for workers' compensation benefits, and the DLIR's Disability Compensation Division (DCD) granted her claim, holding that Smith's injuries arose out of and in the course of her employment. The DLIR appealed, and the Labor and Industrial Relations Appeals Board (LIRAB) reversed the DCD, holding that Smith's injuries did not arise out of and in the course of her employment and were therefore not compensable. Smith appealed.
On appeal, the Intermediate Court of Appeals (ICA) reversed the LIRAB, holding that Smith's injuries were compensable because they arose out of and in the course of her employment. Smith v. State of Hawai'i, Dept. of Labor and Indus. Rels., 1994 Haw. App. LEXIS 52, No. 17215 (Haw. App. Dec. 6, 1994). We granted certiorari and now hold that: (1) injuries suffered by employees while going to or from work arise out of and in the course of the employee's employment if (a) the injury occurs on the employer's premises, and (b) the employee's presence on the employer's premises was required by the nature of the employee's employment; (2) a parking lot owned, maintained, or controlled by an employer is considered part of the employer's premises for purposes of determining whether an employee's injury suffered in a parking lot arises out of and in the course of the employee's employment; and (3) an injury suffered by an employee in a public street, sidewalk, or other off-premises location that is on a direct and/or necessary route between the employer's main premises and the parking lot owned, maintained, or controlled by the employer also arises out of and in the course of the employee's employment. Because the parking lot in the present case was not owned, maintained, or controlled by the DLIR and does not qualify as part of the DLIR's premises, we hold that the injuries suffered by Smith while en route between the DLIR's offices and the parking lot where she parked her car did not arise out of and in the course of her employment. Accordingly, we reverse the holding of the ICA and order depublication of the ICA's opinion in the present case.
I. BACKGROUND
At the time of her injury , Smith was employed by the DLIR as an employment interviewer in offices located in the Kaheka Professional Center at 1481 South King Street in Honolulu. Previously, Smith had been working at another location, but had agreed to relocate to the DLIR's Kaheka Professional Center location with the understanding that parking was available for her to rent at her expense.
The DLIR's office space lease for the Kaheka Professional Center provided the DLIR with the option to rent up to twenty stalls for parking officially-marked State vehicles in the neighboring Hale Kaheka Condominium building parking lot (Hale Kaheka), located across Liona Street from the Kaheka Professional Center. The lease also provided the DLIR's employees with the option to rent up to fifty stalls to park their personal vehicles, all at a preferred rate of $45.00 per month as opposed to the prevailing rate of $50.00 per month, in the same lot.
Prior to September 1990, the State Department of Human Services, Welfare Division (DHS), occupied the office space in the Kaheka Professional Center currently occupied by the DLIR, and, operating under identical parking provisions in its office space lease,
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