Fleetwood Enterprises, Inc. v. WCAB, 134 Cal. App. 4th 1316 (2005)

After completing the business portion of a trip to Europe, John Moody extended his stay for additional sightseeing with his wife in Italy. Moody sought workers’ compensation coverage for severe injuries that he suffered in an automobile accident in which he was involved while driving from Rome to Düsseldorf. The workers’ compensation judge determined that Moody, a design manager for Fleetwood (an RV manufacturer), had driven to Rome after completing the business portion of the trip in part to observe RV designs and elements that he happened to see on the road. The Court of Appeal reversed, holding that “there is no evidence that Fleetwood expected or required [Moody] to continue photographing RV’s in between admiring Michelangelo’s David and the Coliseum…. A unilateral, sporadic consideration of the employer’s business, at times and locations that cannot be regulated or supervised by the employer, does not expand the course of employment.” Cf. Kinsman v. Unocal Corp., 37 Cal. 4th 659 (2005) (landowner may be liable for injuries sustained by employees of independent contractor due to latent or concealed preexisting hazardous condition on the property).