Could Widow of Prison Guard Killed after Meeting Receive Benefits?

What Do You Think?

The special mission exception can make an injury compensable even when it occurs while the employee is travelling. This can include travel to a company meeting. But what if the meeting is held on the company’s premises?

The case of a deceased corrections officer and his widow’s attempts to pay for his funeral addresses the topic. In that case, prison officials scheduled a regular training meeting for supervisors. The meeting took place on a Tuesday at the prison where the employee worked as a dorm supervisor.

When the meeting ended in the early afternoon, the officer left on his motorcycle and, on his way home, was tragically killed at an intersection in another town.

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His wife sought workers’ compensation death benefits, including funeral expenses. The prison argued she wasn’t entitled to them because the officer was outside the course and scope of employment when he was hit. The widow, for her part, argued that the special mission exception to the coming and going rule applied because the prison had required her husband to travel to a meeting.

Generally, under the “coming and going” rule, injuries sustained by an employee while traveling to and from work are not considered to have occurred within the course and scope of his employment, and thus, are not compensable.

Under the special mission exception to that rule, the injury is deemed to occur in the course and scope of employment if the employee was on a specific mission or special mission for the employer when he was injured.

Did the “special mission exception” apply?

A. No. The meeting occurred on premises.

B. Yes. The meeting constituted a special mission regardless of where it took place.

If you selected A, you agreed with the court in Bowman v B.B. Rayburn Correctional Ctr., No. 2024 CA 1288. (La. Ct. App. 07/11/25), which held that the officer’s death was not compensable.

The special mission exception applies to some situations where an employee travels to a work meeting. However, this is generally limited to meetings that occur off premises. Here, the meeting occurred at the officer’s place of work.

“The evidence introduced demonstrated that Mr. Bowman was on his commute home after completing his day's work, and nothing showed that Mr. Bowman was on a special mission for the employer,” the court said.

The court also found that other exceptions to the coming and going rule did not apply. It pointed out that the officer was not paid to travel to and from work. Nor was he provided a vehicle. Rather, he used his personal motorcycle. In addition, this was not a case in which the injury occurred adjacent to the workplace. It instead occurred after he left the premises and reached an intersection in another town.

Because the officer was not killed in the course and scope of employment, his widow was not entitled to benefits.

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