Finley v. St. Louis Smelting & Refining Co.

233 S.W.2d 725, 361 Mo. 142, 1950 Mo. LEXIS 709
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 13, 1950
Docket42026
StatusPublished
Cited by23 cases

This text of 233 S.W.2d 725 (Finley v. St. Louis Smelting & Refining Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Finley v. St. Louis Smelting & Refining Co., 233 S.W.2d 725, 361 Mo. 142, 1950 Mo. LEXIS 709 (Mo. 1950).

Opinion

TIP-TON, J.

[ 725] This case was ordered transferred from t¿e St. Louis Court of Appeals. The opinion of that court is reported in 227 S. W. 2d 747. That court affirmed the judgment of the circuit court of Madison County which affirmed the final award of the Workmen’s Compensation Division of the Industrial Commission in the sum of $900.00 and medical reimbursement in the sum of $67.00.

The facts are not in dispute. They are as follows: At the date of the hearing the respondent had been employed by the St. Louis Smelting & Refining Co. for about four .years hauling rock in one of its mines. The mine at which he worked was about two miles south of Fredericktown and about six miles from respondent’s home. There is no public transportatiqn service from his home to the mine, from his home to Fredericktown or from Fredericktown to the mine.

At the time of his injury respondent was working a day shift from 7:30 A. M. to 3:30 P. M., and as usual he came up from his work underground about 3 :15 P. M. He had washed and changed his clothes and got to [726] his ear about 3 ;25 P. M. It was parked on a parking lot on the company’s property. There was nothing more for him *144 to clo and lie was at liberty to go to his car and to go home at 3:30. He started his car but the fan was stuck. He raised the hood and gave the fan a whirl with his hand. It started and caught his hand, cutting off: his left index finger and a part of his left ring finger. The company maintains this parking lot. Its surface is covered with gravel. It has lights on it and at times the company maintains a watchman there. There aré posted signs with respect to the distances parkers are required to stay from the buildings.

At the time respondent was hired he was not required as a condition of employment to have a car. The company did not ask if he owned a car but did ask if he -had transportation. On prior occasions he had taken other men to work because they had no other transportation but on the day in question he did not have. any passengers with him. Most employees have automobiles and those who do not ride with those who do. This parking lot is about one mile from the highway.

The appellants contend that the facts do not support the final award and judgment for the reason that the injury did not arise out of the employment and, therefore, is not compensable.

Section 3691, R. S. Mo., 1939, of our compensation law provides that “the employer shall be liable irrespective of negligence, to furnish compensation under the provisions of this chapter for personal injury or death of the employee by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment.” In their brief appellants admit that the injury in question occurred “in the course of” respondent’s employment; that is, it happened during his working hours and at a place where he had a right to be. But they contend that the injury did not arise out of respondent’s employment. Therefore, the sole question before us is: Do the facts in this case come within the phrase, “arising out of * * * his employment,” found in section 3691, supra?

“The courts of this and other states have often found it necessary to construe the phrase ‘arising out of and in the course of employment,’but no all-embracing definition has yet been framed. As we said in Leilich v. Chevrolet Motor Co., 328 Mo. 112, 40 S. W. 2d 601, 605, every case involving this phrase ‘should be decided upon its own particular facts and circumstances and not by reference to some formula.’

“In many cases the injuries occurred while employees were away from the place of work. We do not have that problem here. Some cases hold there can be such a departure from the terms of employment as to deny compensation to an employee for an injury occurring while he is at the place of employment and that such departure may be only a brief one. Yet other cases have granted compensation for injuries which occurred at times when the employees were not engaged in the work of their employers or in any work at all. Those cases are not necessarily inconsistent. Each case has turned upon the point of whether, under its particular circumstances, the injury *145 arose from something which had become an incident to the employment.” Wamhoff v. Wagner Electric Corp., 354 Mo. 711, 190 S. W. 2d 915, l. c. 917.

In this ease the respondent was employed to work in the company’s mine. He was injured while he was trying to start his automobile at the close of his day’s work so that he could return to his home. Therefore, respondent was not injured while performing the work he was employed to do. However, if the facts in this record show that by the conduct of the parties the activity in which respondent was engaged at the time of the injury had become an incident to his employment, then he is entitled to compensation. As said before, the facts are not in dispute. But the respondent is entitled to all reasonable inferences to be drawn from these facts, in a light most favorable to support the award. Leilich v. Chevrolet Motor Co., 328 Mo. 112, 40 S. W. 2d 601.

The parking lot where the injury occurred was located on the company’s [727] property, about two hundred feet from the change room and the mine shaft. There was no public conveyance these employees could ride to and from their work. It is true the company did not require any of its employees to have automobiles. The company did not care what method they used in getting to and from their work. But its employees either drove their own automobiles or rode with some other employee. We think it is a reasonable inference that the company maintained the parking lot for the mutual benefit of it and its employees. Even so, the mere fact an employee was injured during working hours on this parking lot would not necessarily entitle the injured employee to compensation. Compensation to an injured employee would depend upon whether his activities should have been reasonably anticipated and expected by the employer and had become an incident to the employment. Wamhoff v. Wagner Electric Corp., supra.

•This court has not decided any compensation cases involving a parking lot maintained by the employer to be used by his employees, but we have cited cases of other jurisdictions and we will briefly review some of them which are based upon facts similar to those in the instant case.

In E. I. Du Pont de Nemours & Co. v. Redding, 147 Pac. 2d 166 (Okla.) the facts are as follows: Immediately after the injured employee completed his day’s work for his employer he went upon a parking lot adjacent to the place of his employment. The parking lot was maintained for the mutual benefit of the employer and its employees. While he was proceeding to his automobile he fell over a “lane divider” and sustained.injuries. . The Oklahoma Supreme Court held that such accident occurring to the employee arose out of and in the course of his employment and falls within the purview of the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

*146 A similar state of facts and the same holdings are found in John Rogers’ Case, 61 N. E. 2d 341 (Mass.), 159 A. L. R. 1394; Lawrence Leather Co. v. Barnhill, 249 Ky. 437, 61 S. W. 2d 1; and Dewar v. General Motors Corp., 19 N. J. Misc. 297, 19 Atl. 2d 194.

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233 S.W.2d 725, 361 Mo. 142, 1950 Mo. LEXIS 709, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/finley-v-st-louis-smelting-refining-co-mo-1950.