Kentucky: Going and Coming Rule Bars Recovery in Negligence Case

Because of the operation of the going and coming rule, a Kentucky delivery person, who delivered food, utilizing his own private vehicle, to customers of his employer—a Papa John’s sandwich store—was not acting in the course and scope of his employment when he struck and killed a pedestrian as the employee drove home after his work day had ended, held a Kentucky appellate court. Accordingly, the employer could not be held vicariously liable for the employee’s alleged negligence. The trial court’s order granting the employer summary judgment was affirmed. The estate contended that since the employee was required to bring his auto to work for purposes of the deliveries, the travel to and from work in a “required vehicle” was sufficiently subject to the employer's control so as to bring the commute within the scope of his employment. The court disagreed. The only travel the employee was “required” to do was during the work shift. Once he checked out, he was at liberty to do as he pleased. 

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 Feltner v. PJ Operations, LLC, 2018 Ky. App. LEXIS 198 (July 6, 2018)

See generally Larson’s Workers’ Compensation Law, § 15.05.

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