A fatal crash involving a Subway worker who was speeding and had marijuana in her system must be reconsidered because the wrong legal standard was applied in awarding workers compensation benefits, an Illinois appellate court ruled Monday.
In Subway v. Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission, the Appellate Court of Illinois, Fifth District reversed a lower court ruling and set aside a decision by the Illinois Workers’ Compensation Commission that had granted death benefits to the family of an employee killed in a car accident.
The case stems from a 2022 accident in which the employee, who was delivering supplies between Subway locations, died after crashing into a stopped truck. Evidence indicated possible distraction, including cell phone use, as well as speeding and the presence of marijuana in her system, according to the record.
An arbitrator initially found the death compensable and awarded benefits, concluding the employee had not acted intentionally or with reckless disregard for her safety. The commission affirmed that decision, and a circuit court upheld it.
However, the appellate court said those rulings applied the wrong legal test. Because the employee was a “traveling employee,” her claim should have been evaluated under a standard assessing whether her actions were “reasonable and foreseeable” in the course of employment, the court said.
Instead, the commission relied on a more lenient standard focused on whether the employee engaged in intentional or reckless misconduct, which the appellate panel said was inappropriate for traveling employee cases.
The distinction is significant because traveling employees are generally considered to be in the course of employment for the duration of their trips, but may lose coverage if their conduct is deemed unreasonable or unforeseeable.
Finding the use of the incorrect legal framework dispositive, the court reversed the circuit court judgment and remanded the case to the commission for reconsideration under the proper standard.
This article was first published in Business Insurance
