Opinion
Docket No. 146846. COA No. 303797.
2013-06-21
Loren D. MOHNEY, Plaintiff–Appellee, v. AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP and Insurance Company of the State of Pennsylvania, Defendants–Appellants, and Second Injury Fund, Defendant–Appellee.
Prior report: Mich.App., 2013 WL 375927.
Order
On order of the Court, the application for leave to appeal the January 31, 2013 judgment of the Court of Appeals is considered and, pursuant to MCR 7.302(H)(1), in lieu of granting leave to appeal, we REVERSE the judgment of the Court of Appeals and we REMAND this case to the Michigan Compensation Appellate Commission (MCAC) for entry of an order denying plaintiff's claim for worker's compensation benefits. The record shows that plaintiff's injuries here did not arise “out of and in the course of” his employment. In particular, the employer did not “own, lease, or maintain” the parking lot on which plaintiff slipped and fell, and thus the coverage set forth in Simkins v. Gen. Motors Corp. (After Remand), 453 Mich. 703, 723, 556 N.W.2d 839 (1996), is not applicable. Simkins held that MCL 418.301(3), which provides that an “employee going to or from his or her work, while on the premises where the employee's work is to be performed ... is presumed to be in the course of his or her employment,” is applicable to the situation in which such employee is injured on property “ not owned, leased, or maintained by his employer,” as long as he was “traveling in a reasonably direct route between the parking area owned, leased, or maintained by the employer and the work-site....” (Emphasis added.) Whatever the merits of Simkins, we reject the extension of Simkins to the present circumstances. There was simply no “ownership, lease, or maintenance” of the parking lot by the employer.