Contradictory Special Mission Exception Decisions

Saturday, February 10, 2007 | 0

By Ian G. Zolty

The Appellate Division in the matters of Delson v. Growing Years and Tighe, Jr. v. Jack Trebour Motorcycles, LLC, reviewed similar fact patterns but reached inapposite decisions of compensability in applying the special mission exception to the going and coming rule. Of note, Delson was decided on October 11, 2005 and Tighe was decided on October 18, 2005, but neither opinion was published.

In the matter of Delson v. Growing Years, et al., petitioners Nuri and Walter Delson were injured in a motor vehicle accident during a trip to purchase parts necessary to complete their employment tasks. During the trip, the petitioners deviated to view the Fall foliage The Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division, concluded in an unpublished opinion that when the accident occurred, petitioners were engaged in job duties, thus finding the accident compensable.

Petitioners were employed by the respondent, Wayne Presbyterian Growing Years Child Development Center of New Jersey "Growing Years"). Growing Years is a nursery school which uses several rooms at a local church on Monday through Friday. As the church requires the use of the rooms on the weekend, Growing Years was required to remove its equipment from the rooms on Friday evenings and return the equipment on Sunday evenings.

Prior to the accident, petitioners arrived at the church around 3:00 p.m. on Nuri's motorcycle to set up the nursery equipment for school on Monday. Upon arriving, petitioners noticed that the wheels of some of the cribs had broken off and needed repairing. That was not unusual as petitioners had to purchase new equipment for the cribs to complete the Sunday set-up numerous times in the past. When necessary, they purchased equipment at a local Channel store.

At 3:30 p.m., petitioners left the church on their motorcycle. The Appellate Division exercised its original jurisdiction and decided that the primary purpose for the trip was to go to the Channel store to purchase necessary crib parts, return to the church and complete the set-up for the next day.

After leaving the church, petitioners proceeded north on Route 23 for 8