Maravilla v. Atwal Brothers Farming, Inc. (2024 Cal. Wrk. Comp. P.D. LEXIS 93)

The applicant was assaulted by a third-party assailant while at work on the employer’s premises.

The applicant was a farm laborer, and the third-party assailant was the owner of a neighboring farm who accused the applicant of stealing an ATV. On the day of the attack, the applicant’s supervisor took a phone call and told the assailant, “He’s here.”

When the assailant arrived at the farm, the supervisor told the assailant where he could find the applicant, then brought the assailant to him. The assailant pointed a gun at the applicant, and told the supervisor to tie up the applicant, which he proceeded to do.

When the applicant escaped, the assailant shot at him multiple times, hitting him in the leg. The assailant then the caught applicant and hit him with a bat before the police arrived.

The WCAB held that an applicant’s injuries from being shot and beaten by a third-party assailant at work were compensable when there was a sufficient work connection.

The WCAB concluded that the employment was not merely a stage on which the injury occurred, because the supervisor’s act of assisting the assailant in locating the applicant and assisting the assailant in attempting to restrain him were sufficient work connections to warrant a finding of injury arising out of and in the course of employment.