## Facts

- John Wortman worked on B & B’s grounds-maintenance crew, performing hot, dirty outdoor labor at grocery-store properties and at personal properties of the owners.
- B & B did not provide shower facilities.
- The crew commonly took swimming breaks between job sites to cool off and wash; this practice was not expressly prohibited and was understood to help the crew work better.
- On June 15, 1982, while traveling between job sites in a company truck and still on the clock, Wortman and coworkers detoured about 1.5 miles to stop near the Alafia River for a swim.
- Wortman dove headfirst into the river, struck a submerged rock, broke his neck, and became a quadriplegic.
- A deputy commissioner awarded workers’ compensation benefits, finding the swim stop an insubstantial deviation and the activity closely tied to personal comfort needs arising from work conditions.
- The employer appealed the award.

## Issues

1. Whether an injury sustained while diving into a river during a brief, off-route stop between job sites arose out of and in the course of employment for workers’ compensation purposes.
2. Whether the swimming stop, or the headfirst dive specifically, constituted a substantial deviation or horseplay amounting to abandonment of employment.

## Decision

- The appellate court affirmed the compensation award.
- The court held the swimming stop was an insubstantial deviation consistent with the personal comfort doctrine.
- The court rejected the employer’s argument that the dive constituted noncompensable horseplay or abandonment on these facts.
- The court deferred to the deputy commissioner’s supported factual findings and credibility determinations.

## Legal Principles

- Under the personal comfort doctrine, reasonable acts for an employee’s personal comfort (e.g., cooling off and washing) are incidental to employment and may occur within the course of employment.
- A minor deviation from work duties or a travel route for personal comfort does not necessarily remove an employee from the course of employment.
- Compensation is generally denied only when the employee’s deviation is substantial or the conduct constitutes horseplay or activity clearly foreign to the employer’s interests.
- Appellate review in workers’ compensation respects factual findings supported by competent, substantial evidence.

## Conclusion

The court upheld benefits because the detour to swim while traveling between job sites was a minor, tolerated personal-comfort break tied to the job’s hot and dirty conditions, and the manner of entering the water did not amount to horseplay or abandonment sufficient to sever work-related causation.


B & B Cash Grocery Stores, Inc. v. Wortman, 431 So. 2d 171 (Fla. Dist. Ct. App. 1st Dist. 1983)