## Facts

- Geneva I. Brooks worked as a bus driver for Western Greyhound Lines.
- On October 3, 1962, her shift ran from 5:00 p.m. to 5:00 a.m.
- At about 1:45 a.m., she completed a route and had a 41-minute layover before her next assignment; she remained on paid time.
- The depot’s restaurant closed at midnight, but a snack bar, coffee vending machine, and a restroom with seating were available inside the terminal.
- During the layover, Brooks left the depot, walked about half a block to a nearby restaurant, bought coffee, and sat at a table.
- An unknown man attempted to converse; when she refused, he assaulted her, causing disabling injuries.
- Brooks was in uniform, but there was no showing the assailant was motivated by that fact.
- Greyhound permitted drivers to leave the premises during layovers, and drivers customarily went to the nearby restaurant for coffee; a supervisor knew of this practice.
- The Industrial Accident Commission found the injury arose out of and in the course of employment and awarded temporary disability benefits; Greyhound sought review to annul the award.

## Issues

1. Whether injuries from an assault occurring during a paid layover, while the employee permissibly left the premises to obtain coffee, arose out of and in the course of employment under California Labor Code § 3600.

## Decision

- The Court of Appeal denied the employer’s challenge and affirmed the Commission’s award.
- The court held the injury arose out of and in the course of employment.
- The court treated the paid layover as part of the work period and viewed obtaining coffee nearby as a normal, permitted incident of employment.
- The court rejected the argument that the off-premises coffee trip was a purely personal deviation breaking the employment connection.

## Legal Principles

- Paid break or layover time may be treated as within the course of employment when the employee remains on the employer’s time as part of the work period.
- Reasonable acts for employee personal comfort (such as obtaining refreshments) are within the course of employment when they do not amount to a substantial personal deviation.
- Employer permission, tolerance, or customary employee practice known to management can support treating an off-premises comfort activity as an accepted incident of employment.
- An injury may “arise out of” employment even when caused by a random assault with no work-related animus, if the employment places the employee in the setting where the risk is encountered during compensated work time.

## Conclusion

Because Brooks was on a paid layover, engaged in a customary and permitted coffee break activity, and suffered injury from a risk encountered in that setting, the award of workers’ compensation benefits for an assault-related injury was upheld as arising out of and in the course of employment.


W. Greyhound Lines v. Indus. Accident Comm'n, 225 Cal. App. 2d 517, 37 Cal. Rptr. 580 (Cal. Ct. App. 1964)