WORKERS’ COMPENSATION LIABILITY FOR INFECTIOUS DISEASES STATE BY STATE


UTAH

If an employee is injured or killed arising out of the course of the employee’s employment, the employee, or the employee’s dependents, are entitled to receive compensation for the loss the employee sustained, which also includes medical or funeral expenses. Utah Code Ann. § 34A-2-401. Utah Courts have held that the words "arising out of" as used in this section refer to the origin or cause of injury, whereas the words "in the course of" refer to time, place and circumstances under which it occurred. Utah Apex Mining Co. v. Industrial Comm'n, 67 Utah 537, 248 P. 490 (1926). For example, an employee is deemed not to be within the course of his employment if he furnishes his own transportation and is injured while going to or from the place where he is employed. Barney v. Industrial Comm'n, 29 Utah 2d 179, 506 P.2d 1271 (1973).

When an employee interrupts or breaks the continuity of his employment for his own purposes, whether for recreation or pleasure, and an accident happens before he brings himself back into the line of his employment, the resulting injury is not compensable because it does not arise out of or in the course of his employment. Sullivan v. Industrial Comm'n, 79 Utah 317, 10 P.2d 924 (1932). The burden to prove that the injury arose out of or was sustained in the course of the employee’s employment rests with the employee or the employee’s dependents. Higley v. Industrial Comm'n, 75 Utah 361, 285 P. 306 (1930); D.H. Peery Estate v. Industrial Comm'n, 79 Utah 8, 7 P.2d 269 (1932). Additionally an employee with a preexisting condition must show that the employment contributed something substantial to increase the risk the employee already faced in everyday life due to the condition. Sisco Hilte v. Industrial Comm'n, 766 P.2d 1089 (Utah Ct. App. 1988).

A compensable occupational disease means any disease or illness that arises out of and in the course of employment and is medically caused or aggravated by that employment.



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