Comeau v. Maine Coastal Services: The Quantum Theory and the Rescue Doctrine in Workers' Compensation

Section 51 of the Maine Workers' Compensation Act provides that in order to be compensable, an employee's injury must arise out of and occur in the course of the employment. The decision of the Maine Supreme Judicial Court in Comeau v. Maine Coastal Services upheld the Workers' Compensation Commission's denial of the plaintiff's petition for an award of compensation. In reaching its decision, however, the Law Court departed from the long-settled analytical approach of treating the "arising out of" and the "in the course of" requirements as separate criteria both of which must be met in order to establish a compensable injury. Justice Carter, concurring, argued that this departure marks the adoption of Professor Larson's "quantum theory" of work connection which "accomplish[es] an enormous expansion of the parameters of the work-connection test as that has long been articulated by . . . [the] Court.”A related issue presented in Comeau involved the so-called "rescue" or "emergency" doctrine, a doctrine not previously considered by the Law Court. The "rescue" or "emergency" doctrine involves both situations in which employer interest exists and those in which employer interest is absent. The court's analysis of this doctrine, however, failed to consider whether the plaintiff, by virtue of his capacity as a supervisor, acted in the interests of his employer in effecting a rescue in an emergency involving a subordinate coworker. In addition, the Law Court failed to recognize that the aspect of the rescue doctrine which establishes compensability in the absence of employer interest falls outside of the policies governing Maine's Workers' Compensation Act.