Carso v. Norwich Union Indemnity Co.

293 S.W. 306, 1927 Tex. App. LEXIS 104
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 31, 1927
DocketNo. 8980.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 293 S.W. 306 (Carso v. Norwich Union Indemnity Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Carso v. Norwich Union Indemnity Co., 293 S.W. 306, 1927 Tex. App. LEXIS 104 (Tex. Ct. App. 1927).

Opinion

LANE, J.

One Sam Schwartz was, on the 24th day of August, 1925, engaged in the manufacture of soda water, under the name of “Texberry Bottling Works,” in the city of Houston. Schwartz, under such name, was a subscriber under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of the state of Texas (Rev. St. 1925, arts. 8306-8309), and at the time of the employment, injury, and death of one Frank Carso, a boy of 14 years of age, held a policy issued by the Norwich Union Indemnity Company, hereinafter referred to as the Indemnity Company, covering the employees engaged in said manufacturing business of Schwartz.

On or about the 24th day of August, 1925, Frank Carso was in the employ of the manufacturing business of Schwartz, and while engaged in the performance of his duties as such employee, received an injury, while riding on a truck used in the delivery of soda water, from which he died, said truck being driven at such time by another of such employees, who, together with Frank Carso, was making deliveries of soda water for said business.

Frank was the son of appellant, Mrs. Minnie Carso. Mrs. Carso in manner and form as required by law presented her claim for compensation for the loss of her son before the Industrial Accident Board of Texas, which granted her an award against the Indemnity Company in a sum exceeding $500. From such award the Indemnity Company, after due notice, to wit, on the 17th day of December, 1925, instituted this suit in the district court of Harris county to set aside said award, and in its petition it averred that the facts of the case were not such as would authorize the Industrial Accident Board to make an award against it of any sum whatever, in that Frank Carso, at the time of his employment and death, was under the age of 14 years, and that at the time of his death he was in the employ of said bottling works, a manufacturing establishment using dangerous machinery, to labor in and about its manufacturing shop, factory, or place wherein such machinery was operated, and to assist in operating, loading, and unloading an automobile truck; that by reason of his age, Frank Carso, under the facts stated, was unlawfully employed, such employment being prohibited by the laws of the state of Texas.

Mrs. Carso answered by general demurrer and general denial, except as to such facts as she may in her answer admit to be true. Becoming actor, she alleged the facts of the employment of her son, his injury and death, the issuance of the policy by the Indemnity Conjpany, its liability under such policy, etc., and prayed for judgment against the Indemnity Company for compensation of $7 per week for 360 weeks, payable in a lump sum, one-third of which to be paid, however, to her attorneys, Ed. Arnold and Earl M. Man-int.

A jury was impaneled and sworn to try the cause, but after both parties had introduced their evidence and closed, the court, upon motion of the Indemnity Company, instructed a verdict for it, and upon such verdict being returned by the jury, judgment was entered decreeing that the award made by the Industrial Accident Board to Mrs. Carso be set aside and annulled; that the Indemnity Company go hence and recover its costs of Mrs. Carso; and that she take nothing by her cross-bill.

Mrs. Carso has appealed, and presents for cause of reversal of the judgment but one proposition, whereby tshe insists that the court erred in instructing’ a verdict for ap-pellee, the Indemnity Company, and upon return of such verdict rendering judgment setting aside the award made by the Industrial Accident Board and decreeing that she take nothing by her cross-bill, in that upon the evidence adduced she was, as a matter of law, entitled to judgment in her favor. If, however, she be mistaken in the above prop--osition, she says that* the instruction complained of is' reversible error, in that the evidence raised issues of fact which should have been submitted to the jury, to wit: (a) As to whether or not Frank Carso, deceased, was employed in hazardous employment contrary to law'; (b) as to whether or not Frank Carso was employed in violation of law; (3) as to whether or not the injuries which Frank Carso received, and from which he died, were caused proximately from his employment and as a result thereof, or *308 from some extraneous cause; (d) as to whether or not Frank Carso was employed “in” a factory in violation of the law, or employed “by” a factory to work outside of said factory or about said factory; (e) as to whether Frank Carso was or was not an employee for whose death recovery could be had under the Workmen’s Compensation Act and the Employer’s Liability Act of the state of Texas.

■By counterproposition, appellee contends:

That the court properly instructed a verdict in its favor, in that the undisputed evidence shows that Frank Carso, deceased, at the time of his injury from which he died, was under the age of 15 years. That he was employed in and about a factory in violation of article 1573 of the Revised Criminal Statutes (Pen. Code) of this state of 1925, wherein it is provided that:

“Any person, or any agent or employé of any person, firm or corporation who shall hereafter employ any child under the age of fifteen (15) years to labor in or about any factory, mill, workshop, laundry, or in messenger service in towns and cities of more than fifteen thousand population, according to the federal census, except as hereinafter provided, shall be deemed guilty of a misdemeanor, and upon conviction in a court of competent jurisdiction, shall be punished by a fine of not less than twenty-five ($25.00) dollars nor more than two hundred ($200.00) dollars or by imprisonment in the county jail for not more than sixty days, or by both such fine and imprisonment.”

That being so unlawfully employed, he was not covered by the Workmen’s Compensation Act, in that in said act (article 8306, § 12i of part 1, R. S. 1925), it is provided that preceding provisions of the act “shall not be considered as authorizing thé employment of a minor in any hazardous employment which is prohibited by any statute of this state.”

Such being the contentions of the parties, and the fact that’ the undisputed evidence shows that the establishment of the appellee was a manufacturing establishment, that Frank Carso was at the time of his injury and death employed by Sam Schwartz, proprietor of said factory, as an assistant to another of his employees, whose duties were to enter the factory building, 40 feet in width and 80 feet in length, to get cases of soda water, load them on a truck, and make delivery thereof to purchasers of same, the manufacturing machinery being situated and operated in one end of the building and the soda water in the other end, the only questions for our decision aye, first, was the employment of the deceased an employment to work in such factory, or about the same; and, second, would the fact that Frank Carso, at the time of his employment and injury, was a child under 15 years of age, and that such employment required him to work in or about such factory, contrary to the law of this state, preclude a recovery by his-mother under our Workmen’s Compensation Act, it being shown that he suffered his injury by the overturning of the delivery truck on which he was riding at a point remote from the factory? ■

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Bluebook (online)
293 S.W. 306, 1927 Tex. App. LEXIS 104, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/carso-v-norwich-union-indemnity-co-texapp-1927.