County of Christian v. Industrial Commission

63 N.E.2d 515, 391 Ill. 475, 1945 Ill. LEXIS 384
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 19, 1945
DocketNo. 28705. Reversed and remanded.
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 63 N.E.2d 515 (County of Christian v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
County of Christian v. Industrial Commission, 63 N.E.2d 515, 391 Ill. 475, 1945 Ill. LEXIS 384 (Ill. 1945).

Opinions

Mr. Chief Justice Thompson

delivered the opinion of the court:

This court has allowed a writ of error to review a judgment of the circuit court of Christian county, awarding compensation-to defendant in error, Clara Seaman Miller. The arbitrator found that Mrs. Miller, on October 12, 1942, while in the employ of the county of Christian, sustained accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of her employment, and that she and her employer were, at the time, operating under the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act; and further found that the injuries sustained caused the aggravation of a pre-existing arthritic condition, which resulted in her complete and permanent disability. In accordance with such finding, she was awarded, for total disability, the sum of $15.87 per week for a period of 277 weeks and $4.01 for one week, and a pension for life of $29.33 Per month, payment of which was to begin when the total-disability award had been paid. The Industrial Commission sustained the award of the arbitrator, and the circuit court confirmed the decision of the commission.

It was stipulated that defendant in error is a registered and certified public health nurse, who, on October 12, 1942, was, and for many years prior thereto had been, employed as county tuberculosis nurse by the board of directors of the tuberculosis sanitarium fund of the county of Christian; that an automobile was purchased and maintained by the tuberculosis sanitarium board and placed at her disposal for the purpose of making the necessary trips incident to her employment; and that on October 12, 1942, while she was operating said automobile on State highway Route 127, at the intersection of State highway Route 16 in Montgomery county, the car collided with another motor vehicle, in which collision she received the injuries in question.

Plaintiff in error denies Mrs. Miller’s right to compensation on the ground, among others, that she and the county of Christian were not operating under and bound by the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act at the time and place of the occurrence of the accidental injuries in question. In the view we have taken of the case it will not be necessary to consider any other contention.

Plaintiff in error did not elect to come within the pro-, visions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. Liability on its part, if any, under the act must arise by reason of the automatic application of the statutory provisions to plaintiff in error without election. Section 3 enumerates various classes of enterprises or businesses as extra-hazardous and provides that the provisions of the act shall apply automatically and without election to the State, county, city, town, township, incorporated village or school district, body politic or municipal 'corporation, and to all employers and all their employees, engaged in any such enumerated enterprises or businesses, which are declared by the act to be extra-hazardous. Defendant in error rélies upon the provisions of subparagraph 8 of this section to 'bring the parties within the act. The section, so far as material to the consideration of this case, is as follows: “The provisions of this act hereinafter following shall apply automatically and without election to the State, county, city, town, township, incorporated village or school district, body politic or municipal corporation, and to all employers and all their employees, engaged in any department of the following enterprises or businesses which are declared to be extra-hazardous, namely: * * * 8. In any enterprise in which statutory or municipal ordinance regulations are now or shall hereafter be imposed for the regulating, guarding, use or the placing of machinery or appliances or for the protection and safeguarding of the employees or the public therein; each of which occupations, enterprises or businesses are hereby declared to be extra-hazardous. ” Ill. Rev. Stat. 1943, chap. 48, par. 139.

Defendant in error was, on February 1, 1925, employed by the board of directors of the tuberculosis sanitarium fund of Christian county in the capacity of county. tuberculosis nurse of the county, and she thereafter remained continuously in such employment and was at the time of the accident on October 12, 1942, the tuberculosis nurse of Christian county. Her employment and duties as such nurse were by virtue of and under the provisions of the statute commonly known as the County Tuberculosis Sanitarium Act (Ill. Rev. Stat. 1943, chap. 34, par. 164 et seq.) and being, as indicated by its title, an act relating to the pare and treatment by counties of'persons afflicted with tuberculosis and providing the means thereof. Christian county maintains no public tuberculosis sanitarium, but, pursuant to the authority of section 7 of the act, provides sanitarium care to its tubercular inhabitants in sanitariums located in Sangamon and Macon counties. Defendant in error’s duties as county tuberculosis nurse included interviewing suspected patients, directing them to the clinics and giving them instructions, following up newly-discovered cases at the clinic, making calls on patients at the sanitariums and in their homes and on suspected cases at their homes, interviewing • doctors and hospital authorities, and investigating “border line” cases to ascertain whether her own or an adjoining county was responsible for their hospitalization. Her duties required considerable travel and for that purpose she was furnished a car, on each door of which were the words “Christian County Sanitarium Board” and a double-barred red cross indicative of tuberculosis work. She made a report each month to the sanitarium board, and prepared an annual or semi-annual report, as required by the sanitarium board for use in mak-ing its report to the board of supervisors of the county. She was furnished an office in the county court house where she wrote letters and often interviewed patients. Her office contained a desk, typewriter and file cases, and was principally a place to keep records and a typewriter, most of her work being field work.

Defendant in error contends that the Christian county court house, wherein she maintains her office as the administrative headquarters of her employer’s enterprise or business of providing care and treatment to the tubercular inhabitants of the county, is subject to statutory and municipal ordinance regulations which automatically bring said enterprise, as extra-hazardous, within the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. The theory upon which ■ she predicates her case is that one department of her employer’s business of providing treatment for tubercular persons, namely the office or administrative department, is extra-hazardous because conducted within the court house which is a building subject to statutory and municipal ordinance regulations; that if one department of an enterprise or business is extra-hazardous, then all its departments are extra-hazardous and all its employees are entitled to the protection of the act, regardless of whether they are employed in the extra-hazardous department or within the extra-hazardous building at the time the injuries are received; and that therefore defendant in error is entitled to compensation in this case regardless of the fact that her injuries were not received within the extra-hazardous building.

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Related

County of Winnebago v. Industrial Commission
215 N.E.2d 258 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1966)
Iowa-Illinois Gas & Electric Co. v. Industrial Commission
95 N.E.2d 482 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1950)
Miller v. State
16 Ill. Ct. Cl. 194 (Court of Claims of Illinois, 1947)

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Bluebook (online)
63 N.E.2d 515, 391 Ill. 475, 1945 Ill. LEXIS 384, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/county-of-christian-v-industrial-commission-ill-1945.