Edil David Melendez Banegas — ADJ12177450

Edil David Melendez Banegas, a laborer for Bayview Environmental Services, worked on an asbestos-removal project in Santa Monica while residing in the San Francisco Bay Area; the employer provided lodging and a per diem. After work stopped unexpectedly on a Saturday due to a blown generator, he advised his supervisor he would drive to the Bay Area and return Monday, and he died from injuries sustained in a motor vehicle accident on Interstate 5 on July 29, 2018. The WCJ found no injury AOE/COE, applying the commercial traveler rule against the claim, and ordered the applicant take nothing. The WCAB granted reconsideration and rescinded the F&O, finding the weekend travel was a leisure-time activity reasonably incident to an out-of-town assignment that the employer expected and the supervisor knew of and did not object to. The Board substituted findings that applicant sustained injury AOE/COE, deferred all other issues, and returned the matter to the trial level.