Foster v. State

8 Ill. Ct. Cl. 340, 1935 Ill. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 80
CourtCourt of Claims of Illinois
DecidedJanuary 8, 1935
DocketNo. 1725
StatusPublished

This text of 8 Ill. Ct. Cl. 340 (Foster v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Claims of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Foster v. State, 8 Ill. Ct. Cl. 340, 1935 Ill. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 80 (Ill. Super. Ct. 1935).

Opinion

Me. Chief Justice Holleeich

delivered the opinion of the court:

On April 14, 1930, and for about six months prior thereto, claimant was employed by the respondent as a maintenance patrolman at a salary of $125.00 per month. He patrolled the road between Foosland and Five Points, in Champaign County, which road commenced about three miles west of Champaign and extended in a northerly direction about thirteen miles to the point where it intersected Route 119, running east and west; thence west on Route 119 to Fisher, thence north through Fisher to Foosland. Both the north and south road, and Route 119 which extended in an easterly and westerly direction, consisted of concrete slabs about nine feet in width, with fifteen-foot dirt shoulders. The intersection of the north and south road with Route 119 was on a Y.

Claimant had been unloading gravel for the State at Mansfield, and after he had finished such work, went back on his own patrol, and filled ruts on such road. About five or 5:20 o’clock in the evening he started home in a Model T Ford truck owned by the State and provided for his use. He was driving in a northerly direction and when he came to the Y at the intersection of Route 119, the car he was driving collided with another motor car driven by one Rose Cantner, as the result of which the car driven by the claimant was badly damaged and claimant’s head struck the top of the car, causing a bump on the side of his head and a cut from which the blood flowed. He was taken to a doctor and then went home. He did not work for about a week after the accident. Then he started to work and worked a half day. Shortly after the accident his mind became affected, he developed hallucinations, and his mental condition gradually became worse. He was treated by several doctors and at the suggestion of his family doctor, was taken to the Norbury Sanitorium at Jacksonville, Illinois, on September 17,1930. He was taken to such institution by Mr. Apple, head engineer of the respondent at the' Paris, Illinois, office, and Mr. Gordon, supervisor- and patrolman for the respondent for that district. At said sanitorium he was treated for post traumatic psychosis, and remained there until he was discharged as improved on December 23,1930. He returned to his work on January 5,1931. His salary was paid in full to July 1, 1930. The expenses incurred by him for medical and hospital services, as shown by his Bill of Particulars herein, are as follows:

Norbury Sanitorium Company............................. $727.61
Dr. L. O. Sale............................................. 59.50
Dr. Nortell .............................................. 10.00

making a total of $797.11, of which amount he paid only the bill of Dr. Nortell in the amount of $10.00.

Claimant now seeks to recover the amount of his medical and hospital bills as above set forth, and compensation for the period from July 1,1930, to January 5,1931, to-wit, 26 6/7 weeks. At the time of the accident his wages were $125.00 per month, and he had two children under sixteen years of age.

This court has held in numerous cases that in the maintenance of its hard roads, the State is engaged in an extra hazardous business or enterprise within the meaning of those words as used in Section three (3) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

Inasmuch as the claimant was on his way home at the time of the accident, the question arises as to whether the injuries sustained by him arose out of and in the course of his employment. In considering a similar question, the Supreme Court in the case of Fairbank Co. vs. Ind. Com., 285 Ill. 11, said:

“The employer is liable for compensation only for an injury which occurs, to the employee while performing some act for the employer in the course of his employment or incidental to it. When the work for the day is ended and the employee has left the premises of his employer to go to his home, the liability of the employer ceases unless after leaving the plant of the employer the employee is incidentally performing some act for the employer-under his contract of employment. * * * * * * The injury odours in the course of the employment within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Act when it occurs within the period of the employment, at a place where the employee may reasonably be and while he is reasonably fulfilling. the duties of his employment or is engaged in doing something incidental to it.”

In the case of Schweiss vs. Ind. Com., 292 Ill. 90, the Supreme Court said:

“The general rule followed in construing the Workmen’s Compensation Act appears to he that a man’s employment does not begin until he has reached the place where he has to work or the scene of his duty, and it does not continue after he has left unless the conveyance in which he. travels to or leaves the premises is furnished by his employer. (Bradbury on Workmen’s Compensation, 3d ed., 468). The controlling factor in determining whether an injury arose out of the employment is whether the employee was within the orbit, area or sphere of his duty, and it has been usually held that if an employee is injured on the premises of the employer in going to or from work he is entitled to compensation for such injuries. (1 Honnold on Workmen’s Compensation, Sec. 122; Bradbury on Workmen’s Compensation, 3d ed. 473, and authorities cited.) The employment is not limited to the exact moment when the workman reaches the place where he is to begin his work and to the moment when he ceases that work. It includes a reasonable amount of time and space before and after ceasing actual employment, having in mind all the circumstances surrounding the accident. (Boyd on Workmen’s Compensation, Sec. 486.) An accident befalling the workman on his way to or from work cannot be held to arise out of the employment where he has not yet come within or has left the sphere of his employment, and where an employee, without knowledge of the employer, uses a way other than that provided by him, an accident thereon cannot be said to arise out of the employment. (Corpus Juris, treatise on Workmen’s Compensation Acts, Sec. 68.) Whether an employee in going to or returning from the place of his employment is in the line of his employment is governed and controlled by the particular circumstances and facts of each case. There must be a line beyond which the liability of the employer cannot continue, (and this would apply to the beginning of the employee’s work as well as the ending), and the question where that line is to be drawn is a question of fact. (Elliott on Workmen’s Compensation Acts, 7th ed. 41.) The area of an employee’s duty may be readily ascertained in some cases, as where the premises are confined to a single building or plant or enclosure, and may be much more difficult of ascertainment in other cases, as, for example, where a railroad company’s shops and yards and right of way extend for miles on a main line of track of the railroad and for a considerable distance on switch tracks.”

In the case of Scully vs. Ind. Com., 284 Ill. 567, the court said:

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Related

Irwin-Neisler & Co. v. Industrial Commission
178 N.E. 357 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1931)
Scully v. Industrial Commission
120 N.E. 492 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1918)
N. K. Fairbank Co. v. Industrial Commission
120 N.E. 457 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1918)
Schweiss v. Industrial Commission
126 N.E. 566 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1920)
Wabash Railway Co. v. Industrial Commission
128 N.E. 290 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1920)

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Bluebook (online)
8 Ill. Ct. Cl. 340, 1935 Ill. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/foster-v-state-ilclaimsct-1935.