County Employee Injured While Walking From Parking Facility to Work Ineligible for Workers’ Compensation Benefits, New Jersey Supreme Court Holds

A Morris County employee sought workers’ compensation benefits for an injury sustained on a public street while walking a few blocks from a privately-owned employer-paid parking lot to her office.  Hersh v. County of Morris, 217 N.J. 236 (2014). The New Jersey Supreme Court held that the employee’s injuries were not compensable under the state Workers’ Compensation Act (WCA) because the injury did not occur in an area that was under the County of Morris’s control. Specifically, the court stated that the county did not control the garage where the employee parked (although it paid for the parking), the route of ingress and egress from the parking garage to her office, or the public street where she was injured. As such, the court determined that the employee’s injuries occurred outside of the employer’s premises and therefore were not compensable under the WCA.