Inland Steel Co. v. Lambert

118 N.E. 162, 66 Ind. App. 246, 1917 Ind. App. LEXIS 208
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 19, 1917
DocketNo. 9,875
StatusPublished
Cited by35 cases

This text of 118 N.E. 162 (Inland Steel Co. v. Lambert) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Inland Steel Co. v. Lambert, 118 N.E. 162, 66 Ind. App. 246, 1917 Ind. App. LEXIS 208 (Ind. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

Caldwell, J. —

The 'following is the substance of that part of the board’s finding material in determining the questions presented: On March 7, 1916, appellee was in the employment of appellant at an average weekly wage of $20.11, in the capacity of a switchman. As such he performed his duties in connection with the operation of a locomotive switch engine over tracks extending through yards 'connected with, and a part of, appellant’s plant. His regular duties as a switchman kept him engaged from six o’clock p. m. until six o’clock a. m. of each day. By the terms of his employment he was required to deposit a card in a clock located at the entrance to appellant’s plant both when he commenced work in the evening and also when he quit in the morning. The clock registered on the card the hours when he commenced and quit work, respectively. The distance from the point where he quit work in the morning to the point where the clock was located was equal to about five city blocks. A path led from the former point to the latter. On the morning of said day the path for a distance of about seventy feet between said points was impassable for pedestrians, by reason of an excavation about ten feet deep. On the morning of, that day appellee, hav[249]*249ing. completed his active duties as switchman, changed his work clothes for street clothes and started walking along said path to go to the clock to register out. Before he reached the place where the path was torn up as aforesaid, the engine upon which appellee had worked during the twelve hours preceding came along in charge of the day crew, running in the direction of the clock, whereupon appellee attempted to board it for the purpose of avoiding the excavation in the path, and for the purpose of arriving at the clock more quickly, and in so doing suffered an injury resulting in the loss ,©f his left foot above the ankle joint. Appellee had been so engaged as a switchman for two months, during which time appellant had in force a rule printed in its'rule book prohibiting any employes from riding on a switch engine except the employes engaged at the time ,in its operation. No representative of appellant had informed appellee of the existence of the rule. When he began work for appellant, two months prior to. his injury, he was furnished a rule book printed in a foreign language, which he could not read. He returned the book to appellant’s employment office, and advised the person in charge that the book was printed in a language which he could not read, and was thereupon informed that rule books printed, in the English language were not at that time in stock. He was requested to return later that he might be furnished a rule book printed in English. Appellee was thereafter on several occasions in the employment office but made no request for such a book, and none was furnished him. At no time prior to his injury had appellee boarded a switch engine after discontinuing his active duties, for the purpose of riding to the clock to register out, but on several [250]*250occasions he had ridden on the engine from a point near the clock to the point where he changed his street clothes for work clothes and began his active duties for the night. ■

The board finds also as facts that appellee received his injuries “by an accident arising out of and in the course of the employment,” and that his injury-was not due to his own wilful misconduct.

■ On the finding the board awarded appellee compensation for 125 weeks at the rate of $11.06 per week under the provisions of subdivision (e) of §31 of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. Acts 1915 p. 392.

1. Section 59 of the act provides that in each proceeding before it, the board shall make and file a statement of the facts. We are first required to determine whether under the finding it appears that appellee received his injury “by an accident arising out of- and in the course of the employment.” It will be observed that the statement of facts includes a finding that such was the origin of the injury. However; a statement of facts should consist of ultimate facts, and should not include either evidentiary facts or conclusions of law. To determine that a certain injury was the result of an accident, or that it arose out of or in the course of the employment, or that it was or was not due to the wilful misconduct of the person involved, as those terms are used in the act, requires that certain fixed legal principles be applied to the ultimate facts of the particular case. It follows that such an inquiry involves a law question, and therefore that the restilt of such inquiry, as that the accident did or did not arise out of, or in the course of, the employment, or whether it was due to wilful misconduct, is [251]*251a legal conclusion rather than an ultimate fact. Lagler v. Roch (1914), 57 Ind. App. 79, 104 N. E. 111; In re Mathewson (1917), (Mass.) 116 N. E. 831; Dietzen Co. v. Industrial Board (1917), 279 Ill. 11, 116 N. E. 684.

2. However, since it is within the province of the board to determine in the first instance whether an injury involved in the proceeding before if was the result of an accident, and whether it arose out of, and in the course of, the employment, it is proper for the board to include in its finding its general conclusions respecting such matters.

3. Such conclusions, however, are reviewáble by this court, and when so reviewed they are binding on this court only when justified by the ultimate facts which must be included in the finding in order that such legal conclusions may be sustained. It follows that we cannot consider such conclusions of law in determining whether under the ultimate facts the injury here was the result of an accident, and whether it arose out of, and in the course of, the employment as those terms are used in the act.

4. It is not contended that the injury here was not the result of an accident as that term is used in the act. We shall therefore give that element no further consideration. It appears from the finding that at the time when appellee was injured, although he had completed his hours of active service as a switchman for that night, yet he was proceeding to the discharge of a further duty of his employment required of him by his employer; that is, he was proceeding to register out. We therefore conclude that the injury was suffered in the course of the employment. The phrase “in the course of,” [252]*252as used in our act and similar acts, has reference to the time, place, and circumstances under which the accident takes place, as distinguished from the origin or cause of the accident. Such phrase relates to the circumstances under which an accident of a given character or quality takes place. Fitzgerald v. Clarke & Son (1908), 1 B. W. C. C. 197; Dietzen Co. v. Industrial Board, supra.

The following facts bear more particularly on the question whether the accident arose out of the employment: The path being obstructed as indicated, appellee attempted to board the engine before he had reached such obstruction, and as a result he was injured. In attempting to board the engine two purposes or motives actuated him: First, he desired to avoid the obstruction, and, second, that he might reach the clock and register out more quickly.

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Bluebook (online)
118 N.E. 162, 66 Ind. App. 246, 1917 Ind. App. LEXIS 208, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/inland-steel-co-v-lambert-indctapp-1917.