## Facts

- Mark Moeller worked for Ralphs Grocery Company (Ralphs).
- In October 1991, Moeller went on disability leave due to an injury.
- In November 1991, while Moeller remained on disability leave, Ralphs laid him off.
- On June 1, 1992, Ralphs telephoned Moeller at home and told him he could report back to work the next day.
- During the same call, Ralphs told Moeller the job would be part-time, without benefits, and at much lower pay than before his leave.
- Moeller had colon cancer and significant medical bills at the time of the call.
- Shortly after the call, Moeller suffered a heart attack and died that night.
- Medical opinions attributed the heart attack to the stress of learning he could return only under reduced terms (part-time, no benefits, lower pay).
- Moeller’s widow sought workers’ compensation death benefits.
- The Workers’ Compensation Appeals Board (WCAB) awarded benefits after finding the heart attack occurred in the course of employment.
- Ralphs petitioned the California Court of Appeal for a writ of review to annul the WCAB’s award.

## Issues

1. Whether Moeller’s fatal heart attack “arose out of and in the course of employment” when it occurred at home after Ralphs called about returning to work the next day on part-time status without benefits and at reduced pay.
2. Whether the employment relationship (or the course of employment) covered an off-premises, off-duty injury occurring during a layoff and before the employee actually returned to work.

## Decision

- The California Court of Appeal granted Ralphs’s petition for writ of review.
- The court annulled the WCAB’s award of death benefits.
- The court held Moeller’s heart attack did not occur in the course of employment because he was laid off at the time and the injury occurred at home before any return to work; even assuming some continuing employment connection, he was not yet back at work until the next day.

## Legal Principles

- A workers’ compensation claim requires that the injury both (1) arise out of the employment (a causal link) and (2) occur in the course of employment (a connection in time, place, and circumstances).
- “In the course of employment” generally does not include injuries sustained at home while the worker is off duty and not performing employment services.
- The “going and coming” doctrine reflects that the course of employment is commonly treated as suspended when a worker is away from the workplace and not yet back at work; similar limits apply when the worker has not resumed work after a layoff.
- Stress tied to employment-related communications does not, by itself, supply the required time-place-circumstance connection when the injury happens off premises and outside working time.

## Conclusion

Because Moeller suffered the fatal heart attack at home while laid off and before he resumed work, the Court of Appeal concluded the injury was not in the course of employment even if the phone call related to his job, and it annulled the WCAB’s death-benefit award.


Ralphs Grocery Co. v. Workers' Compensation Appeals Board, 68 Cal. Rptr. 2d 161 (1997)