In this Alameda County case, the defendant was a horse ranch located in the hills of Castro Valley, which provided equestrian training and stabling services. Our client was an employee who lived on the premises and took care of the approximately 60 horses stabled there by feeding and cleaning their stalls. On the day of the incident, as he was feeding one of the horses, which required him to enter the horse’s stall, the horse startled and kicked him in the face, causing fractures to his facial bones and teeth, and brain injuries.

Our client had been a full-time and loyal employee for 12 years and lived on the premises, but his employer did not maintain workers compensation insurance for him or any other employee. The defendant denied any liability on grounds that our client was not an employee and was not in the course and scope of his employment at the time of the incident. The only recourse for our client was to bring suit against the defendant employer under Labor Code § 3706, which allows an employee who was injured in the course of his employment to bring suit against an employer who failed to secure workers’ compensation coverage.

After extensive litigation, the defendant agreed to resolve the case and fund the settlement with personal funds as the insurer for defendant refused to cover the damages. Central to achieving this result was effectively applying the “bunkhouse rule” to the facts of the case. This 100-year-old rule holds that a plaintiff is within the course of his employment at the time of the incident if his employment contract or the nature of his employment requires him to reside on the employer’s premises, and he was engaged in a reasonable and anticipated use of the premises at the time of injury.