An employee who does not receive mileage reimbursement for use of his car during an unpaid lunch hour is injured while en route to the bank to cash his paycheck. Which doctrine supports compensation?

• A. Delay and investigate.
• B. Accept because of the personal comfort doctrine.
• C. Deny due to a personal errand.
• D. Deny due to personal errand not related to work.

Answer: (B)

The key idea is the personal comfort doctrine. When an employee is on a meal or rest break that the employer allows or provides, injuries that occur during that break can still be considered injuries on the job, even if the activity is for the employee’s personal comfort.

In this scenario, the lunch hour is unpaid but permitted. The trip to the bank to cash a paycheck happens during that sanctioned break, not during work duties. Because the employee is still within the workday and under the employer’s control during the break, the injury is considered to have occurred in the course of employment. The fact that the outing is a personal errand does not remove compensability when it occurs within a permitted break.

If the trip were purely a personal errand outside of any employer-approved break, or outside of work hours, then compensation could be denied under the personal-errand principle. But here, the break provision keeps the event within the employment relationship, so compensation is supported.