New York: Retail Worker Who Slipped on Wet Surface Near Entrance to Shopping Mall was Denied Benefits

Construing New York's "gray area" rule, which holds that where the risks of street travel merge with the risks attendant with employment, the mere fact that the accident took place on a public road or sidewalk will not ipso facto negate the right to compensation, a state appellate court affirmed a decision by the Board that refused to award benefits to a claimant who slipped on wet pavement while entering the shopping mall that contained the retail store where she worked. The court noted the proximity of the entrance to the mall and that the claimant was heading toward her workplace. It agreed with the Board, however, that the risk posed by the wet condition was nevertheless unrelated to claimant’s employment and merely constituted a danger that existed to any passerby utilizing that entrance.

Thomas A. Robinson, J.D., the Feature National Columnist for the LexisNexis Workers’ Compensation eNewsletter, is co-author of Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law (LexisNexis).

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Matter of Djukic v. Hanna Andersson, LLC, 2020 N.Y. App. LEXIS 3788 (3d Dept. July 2, 2020)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 6.05.

Source: Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, the nation’s leading authority on workers’ compensation law

For a more detailed discussion of the case, see

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