South Carolina: Under “Divided Premises” Rule, Injuries Sustained on Public Street Are Compensable

The South Carolina Supreme Court has held that a state university professor, who sustained injuries when she was struck by a car as she crossed a public road that separated the university’s library, where she had been working, and a university parking lot, where she had parked her vehicle, should be awarded workers’ compensation benefits under the Larson “divided premises” rule [see Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law § 13.01[4][b]]. The Court indicated that the fact that she was not actually on her employer’s property at the time of the accident did not disqualify her claim. According to the Court, the employer had created the employee’s need to cross the street. That the employer did not compel her to park in the lot was also not controlling.

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

LexisNexis Online Subscribers: Citations below link to Lexis Advance.

See Davaut v. University of S.C., 2016 S.C. LEXIS 301 (Oct. 26, 2016)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 13.01.

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