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Maryland Casualty Co. v. Lorkovic6/1/1994
ent upon the method of travel employed.
Watson, 200 Md. at 469 (emphasis added), quoted in Ryan, 38 Md. App. 317 at 326, 381 A.2d 294.
We further noted that the Watson Court was not squarely faced with the principle tacitly accepted by the Supreme Court in Cardillo -- that mere payment of transportation costs would not suffice to establish coverage -- but, rather was faced with an implicit agreement. See Ryan, 38 Md. App. at 327.
The fact that for three years the employee lived on the employer 's farm three miles away from the city, and the fact that the place where he finished work was often more than a mile from the center of the city, considered together with the other facts and circumstances in the case, warranted the finding of the Commission that the employment continued from the time he got on the truck until he got off.
Watson, 200 Md. at 469-70, quoted in Ryan, 38 Md. App. at 327.
The Watson Court further noted that "it is generally accepted that the agreement of an employer to provide transportation for his employee need not be express but may be implied from the nature, conditions and circumstances of the employment and the custom of the employer to provide transportation." Id. at 470 (emphasis added).
Finally, we juxtaposed two cases, Tavel v. Bechtel Corp., 242 Md. 299, 219 A.2d 43 (1966) and Western Elec. Co. v. Engleman, 13 Md. App. 374, 283 A.2d 437 (1971), to demonstrate the principle that where an employer agrees to provide transportation by means of reimbursement of expenses, that payment must bear a relationship to "reasonable travel expenses." Ryan, 38 Md. App. at 326-28. In Tavel, the employee was paid $1.20 per day "travel expense" pursuant to a former collective bargaining agreement that was superseded by a new agreement that did not provide for "travel expenses." The $1.20 travel expense was also determined to have no "relationship whatever to either the cost of transportation or the time it took to go back and forth." The Court concluded that the $1.20 was purely a fringe benefit to attract workers from the District of Columbia area, and, therefore, "the employer did not furnish the means of transportation nor pay its equivalent." Ryan, 38 Md. App. at 327.
In contrast, the claimant in Western Electric, was a Baltimore-based "installer" for Western Electric. Under the applicable collective bargaining agreement, if an employee was assigned to work at another location within the range of daily travel the employer would either furnish transportation to the job site by assigning the employee to travel as a driver or passenger in a company car or would pay a "daily transportation expense allowance" and a "daily travel time allowance" and would not furnish the employee a company car. Ryan, 38 Md. App. at 327-28.
In Western Electric, the claimant car pooled with another employee in that employee's car, and was injured on the trip home from the work site. We held that compensability hinged on whether the two allowances bore a relationship to reasonable travel expenses; if they did, the case would fall within the free transportation exception. The Court concluded that Western Electric was obligated by agreement to provide transportation and made payments which bore a relationship to reasonable travel expenses; Tavel was therefore distinguished and the claimant was covered. Id. at 327-28.
From the foregoing cas
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