Klug v. Industrial Commission

46 N.E.2d 38, 381 Ill. 608
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 21, 1943
DocketNo. 26892. Judgment reversed.
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 46 N.E.2d 38 (Klug 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
Klug v. Industrial Commission, 46 N.E.2d 38, 381 Ill. 608 (Ill. 1943).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Thompson

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a writ of error granted by this court to review the judgment of the circuit court of Kane county. The case arises under the Workmen’s Compensation Act. It involves a claim for compensation on account of injuries received by Arietta M. Klug. It is claimed the injuries sustained were accidental and arose out of and in the course of her employment. Application for adjustment of claim was filed February 11, 1938, alleging the accident occurred on September 13, 1937, at the Abbott school in Elgin, Illinois, where she was employed as assistant librarian. She arrived at the Abbott school after lunch, parked her car in front of the school on a public street and, after leaving same, observed that one of the car windows was open. She returned to the car to close the window and, after unlocking the door, she pulled it open and, in so doing, the comer of the car door struck her in the left eye, injuring her.

Stipulations were entered into that the parties were operating under the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act; that adequate notice was given and claim made in due time; that claimant was twenty-one years old at the time of the alleged injury.

This case was heard before the arbitrator upon evidence submitted by defendant in error alone. No evidence was offered by plaintiff in error. No further evidence was offered by either party on the hearing before the Industrial Commission. The arbitrator found that claimant was not entitled to compensation for the reason that the accident did not arise out of and in the course of her employment and later, on review, the Industrial Commission entered an order sustaining and affirming the decision of the arbitrator denying compensation.

Defendant in error removed the cause to the circuit court of Kane county by certiorari. The court reversed the decision of the commission and entered judgment for an award- in favor of defendant in error, Arietta M. Klug, in accordance with the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

The evidence reveals that on September 13, 1937, and for some time prior thereto, defendant in error worked for the board of education as an assistant kindergarten teacher in Lincoln school in the forenoon and as an assistant librarian in the Abbott school in the afternoon. She was, during the noon lunch hour, free to do anything she desired and could take her lunch wherever she pleased. The method by which she traveled from one school to another was left entirely to her own choice and the automobile which she used did not belong to the board of education, neither did the board of education have any supervision as to its use. On the particular day of her injury she left her employment at the Lincoln school at noon, drove her family automobile to the factory where her father worked, took him home to lunch, drove him back to a place near' the factory, then drove to the Abbott school, her place of employment, and parked her car in front of the school on a public street. After locking the door and taking a step or two toward the schoolhouse, she noticed that one of the windows in the car was open so she returned to unlock the car in order to close the window, that the car would be fully locked as a precaution against theft. The car door, according to her statement, had been sticking. She gave it a jerk in opening it and it swung open and struck her, breaking her glasses and injuring her eye.

The only question presented for decision is whether or not the injury arose out of and in the course of her employment. It was incumbent on defendant in error to prove that her injury arose out of and in the course of her employment. These words have often been used and construed by this court and it is now well established that the words “out of” point to the origin of the cause of the accident, and the words “in the course of” point to the time, place and circumstances under which the accident occurred. These words are used together and there can be no recovery in this case unless the injury occurred in the course of the employment and also arose out of the employment. The accident must result from a risk incidental to the employment and while the employee is doing that which he is reasonably required to do within the time of his employment and at the place where he may be reasonably expected to be while discharging the duties of his employment. Board of Education of the City of Chicago v. Industrial Com. 321 Ill. 23; Dietzen Co. v. Industrial Board, 279 id. 11; Morris & Co. v. Industrial Com. 295 id. 49.

In order for an accident to arise out of the employment it must be incidental to the performance of the contract of service, and the origin or cause of the accident must belong to and be connected with the contract of service. (Swartz v. Industrial Com. 379 Ill. 139; Rainford v. Industrial Com. 289 id. 427.) The Workmen’s Compensation Act does not apply to every accidental injury which may happen to an employee during his employment. It does not make the employer an insurer against all injury. The injury contemplated by the act must have its origin in some risk of the employment. (Schwartz v. Industrial Com. supra; Edelweiss Gardens v. Industrial Com. 290 Ill. 459.) 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. (Schwartz v. Industrial Com. supra; Fairbank Co. v. Industrial Com. 285 Ill. 11.) A risk is incidental to the employment when it belongs to oils connected with what a workman has to do in fulfilling his contract of service. (Boorde v. Industrial Com. 310 Ill. 62.) A prerequisite to the right to compensation is that the accidental injury must arise out of, as well as occur in the course of, the employment, and the mere fact that the duties take the employee to the place of the injury and that, but for the employment, he would not have been there, is not, of itself, sufficient to give rise to the right to compensation. There must be some causal relation between the employment and the injury, and the causative danger must be peculiar to the work and not common to the neighborhood. Great American Indemnity Co. v. Industrial Com. 367 Ill. 241.

In order for an- accidental injury to come within the Workmen’s Compensation Act it must be of such character that it may be seen to have had its origin in the nature of the employment or have been incidental to the employment, or it must have been the result of a risk to which, by reason of the employment, the injured employee was exposed to a greater degree than if he had not been so employed. It is not enough that the presence of the injured person at the place he was injured was due to his employment, if the injury is sustained by reason of some cause having no relation to the nature of the employment. Sure Pure Ice Co. v. Industrial Com. 320 Ill. 332.

The record shows conclusively that the defendant in error was permitted to do as she saw fit during her lunch hour. In this the employer attempted to exercise no control whatever. She had the right to choose her own time for lunch and her employment was such as to be suspended during that time. At the noon hour she was not instructed by the board of education as to what she should do. She was free to take her lunch wherever she desired and was free to do anything during the noon hour that she pleased.

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Bluebook (online)
46 N.E.2d 38, 381 Ill. 608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/klug-v-industrial-commission-ill-1943.