Hutchinson's Case

122 A. 626, 123 Me. 250, 1923 Me. LEXIS 158
CourtSupreme Judicial Court of Maine
DecidedNovember 24, 1923
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 122 A. 626 (Hutchinson's Case) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Judicial Court of Maine primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hutchinson's Case, 122 A. 626, 123 Me. 250, 1923 Me. LEXIS 158 (Me. 1923).

Opinion

Wilson, J.

The Bangor Railway and Electric Co., is a public utility having its principal place of business in the city of Bangor and operates a street railroad and also supplies several cities and towns with electric current for light, heat and power.

In 1918, for the purpose of increasing the efficiency and output of one of its power plants located in the town of Veazie, it began on a plan of reconstruction of the power station, which plan, when fully completed, would include the erection or reconstruction of fifteen concrete flumes on the Veazie side of the Penobscot River, the installing therein of water wheels, the relocating of old and the installing of additional generators, and the replacing of the old switchboard controlling the output of the.electric current with a modern and improved system of transformers and switches enclosed in a series of brick cells to which wires ran from the generators and which cells were also connected with the meters or meter panels in the power house.

The work was to be done, not under one plan and as a single unit, but under several plans and in separate units or jobs as they were termed in the evidence; not by outside contractors, but by the Company itself employing some of its own regular employees and such transient workers as might be necessary.

For instance, one, and apparently the first unit of construction undertaken, included the erection or reconstruction of the flume numbered 1 on the Company’s general plan, the installing of a water wheel therein and the connecting up of the water wheel with the generators in the powerhouse. Included in this “job,” or as a separate unit of construction, the evidence does not disclose, was the erection, for the purpose of replacing the old switchboard, of a series [252]*252of brick cells, numbered from 1 to 34 inclusive on the Company’s plans, and the installation therein of the necessary transformers and switches. Another job or unit as a part of the general plan of reconstruction of this power plant was the erection of additional brick cells with transformers and switches, twelve in number and numbered from 35 to 47 inclusive on the Company’s Drawing numbered 3392 marked Respondent’s Exhibit 4. This job or unit was designated on the Company’s books and referred to in the evidence as “Job number 3082.”

Another job or unit, designated on the Company’s books as “Job number 3083,” included the erecting or rebuilding of flumes numbered 2,, 3 and 4 on the Company’s plan and the installation of three new water wheels therein, and the relocating and connecting up of the generators in the power house with the new water wheels.

The work of reconstructing flumes from 5 to 9 and installing additional generators was later designated by “Job number 3088,” and that of installing twelve more brick cells with transformers and switches it appears has also been treated by the Company as a unit in its general plan of construction and been given the job number of 30100. The remainder of the work may also have been further divided into units, but that is immaterial in the consideration of this case.

The work of reconstructing flume No. 1 and the installing of a water wheel therein and its connection with the generators in the powerhouse had.already been completed prior to the summer of 1919, as had also the erection of the brick cells, now numbered from 1 to 34 inclusive on the Company’s plan, with the necessary transformers and switches and connections with the proper meter panels.

Up to June, 1919, respondent Company was not an assenting employer under the Workmen’s Compensation Act as to any of the two hundred and fifty employees. On June 19, 1919, however, in anticipation of the- somewhat unusual and hazardous character of the work to be done in reconstructing flumes 2, 3 .and 4, the installation of water wheels therein and the relocating of the generators in the power house above, it filed its assent to become subject to the Compensation Act, which assent in writing specified the place of employment as Yeazie, Maine, and the nature of the employment as, “Construction under Plan 3083, Bangor Railway & E. Co.” “Average number of Employees—15.” With this written assent, [253]*253as provided by the Act, it also filed an insurance policy which describes the location of the employment as the “Power Plant of the Company at Veazie, Me., Job Plan 3083”; and further describes the nature of the work, as “Concrete Work—Piers, Abutments for Bridges, Retaining Walls, Water Conduits, and other structures.” The pay roll to include those engaged in making, setting up, and taking down frames, scaffolds, and false work, blasting, and drivers and drivers’ helpers. The policy also contains the express provision that, “It is understood and agreed that this policy does not cover any work carried on by the above assured other than that described in Job Plan 3083 of the above corporation for work done at power plant in Veazie, Maine.”

The assent and policy were approved by the Industrial Accident Commission and a certificate issued to the Company as an assenting employer under Paragraph III of Section 6 of the Act, thus in effect approving the division of its business and treating the work of constructing the flumes, installing the water wheel and relocating and connecting up the generators as a separate business.

Assuming this division of its business to be proper under Section 3 of the Act, as otherwise the Company cannot be held to be an assenting employer at all, and inasmuch as the insurance carrier cannot be held beyond the terms of its contract of indemnity, unless the deceased at the time of the accident was engaged on work covered by Job Plan 3083, or connected with it within the meaning of the contract of indemnity, the petition must be dismissed. Fournier’s Case, 120 Maine, 191; Michaud’s Case, 121 Maine, 537.

The petitioner’s counsel apparently assents to this, and urges before this court, as the basis of the award, that the accident occurred while the deceased was examining wires connecting the generators with the transformer and switches in the brick cells and argues that this work was part of the work to be done under Job Plan 3083.

It is not quite clear, however, on what ground the award is placed, whether as the Commissioner states in one paragraph, that the work being done by the deceased “was a part of and incidental to the work contemplated under Job Plan 3083,” or because, as he states in another, the deceased “was engaged in work directly connected with the development of the plant as set forth in Job Plan 3083”; the second conclusion being much broader than the first.

[254]*254The first might' follow from the finding in the decision that the work of constructing the brick cells “being done,” the next step in the natural order was to install in flumes 2, 3 and 4 three S. Morgan Water Wheels and connect thereto the electric generators and connect those in turn with the switches on the already newly constructed “brick switch cells.” . The “brick switch cells” being covered by Job Plan 3082, and if this work was “done” and “already constructed” as indicated in the language Of the decision above quoted, then wiring the generator up to the switch cells may be so connected with Job Plan 3083 as to be covered by the assent and the insurance policy in this case.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

White v. Monmouth Canning Company
228 A.2d 795 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1967)
Guthrie v. Mowry
184 A. 895 (Supreme Judicial Court of Maine, 1936)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
122 A. 626, 123 Me. 250, 1923 Me. LEXIS 158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hutchinsons-case-me-1923.