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Maryland Casualty Co. v. Lorkovic6/1/1994
free transportation exception in Ryan v. Kasaskeris, 38 Md. App. 317, 381 A.2d 294 (1977). Because of the level of detail in that opinion and the lack of substantial development in case law regarding the free transportation exception, we shall only review the more important
cases covered in Ryan. We continue to be mindful of the warning set forth in Miller v. United Rys. & Elec. Co., 161 Md. 404, 407, 157 A. 292 (1931):
It is only the simple direction of the statute that is being applied to each set of facts, and there is danger that in following the lead of resemblances in the facts of decided cases we may use them as stepping stones to foreign ground.
The Ryan Court began with the inauguration of the free transportation rule in Harrison v. Central Constr. Co., 135 Md. 170, 108 A. 874 (1919). In that case, the claimant lived in Baltimore and worked in Magnolia. As part of his employment contract, the employer furnished claimant with a "button" that entitled him to free train rides to work. One day, the claimant mistakenly boarded what he thought, and was told, was the "work train." Realizing his mistake, claimant exited the train and switched to the work train. While boarding the work train, claimant was injured. Relying on other jurisdictions, the Court stated:
When the injury occurs before the beginning or after the termination of work there are two general rules applicable to the question as to whether it arose out of and in the course of the employment. The first is that an employee , while on his way to work, is not in the course of employment. The second is that where the worker is employed to work at a certain place, and as part of his contract of employment there is an agreement that his employer shall furnish him free transportation to or from his work the period of service continues during the time of transportation, and if an injury occurs during the course of transportation it is held to have arisen out of and in the course of employment.
Harrison, 135 Md. at 177-78, quoted in Ryan, 38 Md. App. at 321.
Based on the free transportation theory, the Court held that it was error for the lower court to have ruled, as a matter of
law, that the injury did not arise out of and in the course of claim-ant's employment. Harrison, 135 Md. at 180.
In Heaps v. Cobb, 185 Md. 372, 384, 45 A.2d 73 (1945), the Court of Appeals made it clear that the furnishing of free transportation does not require that the employer supply the vehicle; it is sufficient that the employee substitute his own vehicle. Ryan, 38 Md. App. at 323; see also Watson v. Grimm, 200 Md. 461, 469, 90 A.2d 180 (1952).
The Ryan Court next addressed Cardillo v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 330 U.S. 469, 91 L. Ed. 1028, 67 S. Ct. 801 (1947), a leading case in Maryland's development of the free transportation rule. That case involved the District of Columbia Workmen's Compensation Act. The employee was an electrical contractor who lived in the District of Columbia and worked in the metropolitan area. At one point, he was transferred to work a project at Quantico, Virginia. The applicable union contract required the employer to furnish "transportation and any necessary expense such as board and lodging ... for all work outside the District of Columbia." Id. at 472. An agreement was reached whereby the employer would meet this contractual obligation by paying employees working outside the District of Columbia two dollars a day as a transportation expense, the estimated co
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