Lavinski v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R.

3 Pa. D. & C. 519, 1922 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 18
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lackawanna County
DecidedNovember 10, 1922
DocketNo. 251
StatusPublished

This text of 3 Pa. D. & C. 519 (Lavinski v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Lackawanna County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lavinski v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R., 3 Pa. D. & C. 519, 1922 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 18 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1922).

Opinion

Maxey, J.,

This is the second time this case has been before us. On April 26, 1921, Commissioner Houck, of the Workmen’s Compensation Board, filed the following opinion:

“The referee found in this case that the claimant was employed by the defendant as a doortender, and that while riding on a motor in the defendant’s mine for the purpose of tending to one of the doors of which he had charge, his foot caught between a rail and the motor and smashed two of his toes, resulting in total disability up to June 11, 1920. The referee accordingly awarded compensation, and the defendant has appealed. The defendant’s main contention is that there is no evidence to warrant the findings of the referee.
“The evidence shows very clearly that the claimant was employed as a door-tender in the defendant’s mine and that he had charge of about six doors. It was his duty to open these doors to allow the motor and the cars attached to it to pass through, and then to close the door in order that the air currents in the mine would not be interrupted. These six doors were situated at a considerable distance from each other. One of the defendant’s section foremen testified that the distance between the two farthest doors is 1430 feet. The evidence also shows that the claimant, after opening and closing one door, customarily rode on the motor to the next door which was to be opened. It was while riding the motor in this fashion and for this purpose that he met with the accident. The evidence also shows, and it is admitted by the claimant, that he was directed, on several occasions, by his superiors not to ride on the motor. He was to learn from the motorman what door was to be opened [520]*520next and to proceed to that door on foot. Prom all the evidence in the case, it is very apparent that the claimant was in the course of his employment when he was injured. He was proceeding with the motor to the next door which it was his duty to open.
“The case then involves the single proposition, whether the claimant’s right to compensation is defeated by reason of the fact that he was disobeying orders at the time he was injured. The board is of the opinion that this does not bar the claimant. His disobedience of the order not to ride on the motor was nothing more than negligence on his part, and negligence on the part of the employee is no bar to compensation: Gurski v. Susquehanna Coal Co., 262 Pa. 1. Conceding, therefore, that the claimant was performing his duties in a negligent manner and contrary to express instructions, he, nevertheless, was injured while in the course of his employment and is entitled to compensation. The findings of the referee are supported by the evidence and his .conclusions based thereon are without error.
“The findings of fact and conclusions of law of the referee are affirmed and the appeal is dismissed.”

The defendant took an appeal, and we held, in an opinion filed Jan. 9, 1922, that the award of the Workmen’s Compensation Board in this case was not supported by competent and sufficient evidence, and we reversed said award and remitted the record to the board for further hearing and determination as prescribed by law. We held that the evidence conclusively established, not, as the learned commissioner found, that “he (the claimant, when injured') was proceeding with the motor to the next door which it was his duty to open,” but that he was proceeding from the very door he was employed to open and was, according to his own statement, 800 feet from his post of duty when he was injured, and that at the time he was doing something which was not only foreign to his employment, but which he was expressly and repeatedly forbidden to do, to wit, riding on the mine motor.

We based our conclusion upon the testimony of the claimant himself, as well as upon the other testimony in the case. The claimant testified, in substance, that at the time he was injured he was on the motor merely “for the ride,” and that the door at which he was injured was not a door that he was tending, that it was 800 feet from the nearest door it was his duty to tend, and that the place at which he was injured was not on the way to any of the other doors. We quote from page 12 of the testimony:

“Q. Now, which one of those doors were you injured at? A. Down further from my doors — another door. Q. It was not at the door you were tending? A. No. Q. Down further, you say, from your door? A. Yes. Q. Prom what door? A. Prom ‘U’ gangway down further. Q. How much further? A. About 800 feet, I guess. Q. Was it in the direction of any of the other five doors you were tending; in other words, did you have to go that way to get to any of the other doors? A. No, sir. Q. What were you doing down there? A. I told you once I was on the motor. Q. What business did you have on the motor? A. I was down for the ride; I used to be on the motor wherever they went. Q. You had been told not to do it? A. Yes.”

After the filing of our opinion, the Workmen’s Compensation Board granted a hearing de novo. No additional testimony was offered, but the testimony on the record was adopted as though taken before the board. The Compensation Board then, on Aug. 4, 1922, handed down an opinion by Commissioner Houck. The commissioner in his opinion, inter alia, says:

“We cannot escape the conclusion that the claimant was in the course of his employment when injured. Section 301 of the Workmen’s Compensation [521]*521Act provides that injury by accident in the course of employment shall include all injuries sustained while the employee is actually engaged in the furtherance of the business or affairs of his employer, and shall include all injuries caused by the operation of the employer’s business on the premises sustained by an employee who, though not so engaged, is injured upon the premises occupied by and under the control of the employer, the employee’s presence thereon being required by the nature of his employment. In our opinion, the claimant falls within both branches of this definition. He was furthering the business or affairs of his employer when he was riding on the motor from door to door. Granting that he could have waited at the door until the motor returned, and granting that he was disobeying orders by riding on the motor, that does not take him out of the course of his employment. At the most, his disobedience of orders was negligence and is no bar to compensation: Gurski v. Susquehanna Coal Co., 262 Pa. 1. And the claimant was certainly injured on the employer’s premises by the operation of the employer’s business or affairs, and his presence on the premises was required by the nature of his employment.”

When we reversed the Workmen’s Compensation Board in our opinion handed down Jan. 9, 1922, we believed that we followed the decision of the Supreme Court in Kuca v. Lehigh Valley Coal Co., 268 Pa. 163, which ease was referred to in our opinion. In that case, as the Supreme Court pointed out, “Kuca left his regular working place on Road 203, and went to another section of the mine, namely, Road 242, along which he traveled for some distance until he came to an old abandoned opening, which had been driven to a depth of 120 feet off the last-mentioned road. He and a companion went into this old abandoned opening a distance of about 70 feet and there caused an explosion of gas. No duty or business called him to the scene of the accident, which was 500 feet distant from his proper working place.

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Related

Dzikowska v. Superior Steel Co.
103 A. 351 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1918)
Gurski v. Susquehanna Coal Co.
104 A. 801 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1918)
Kuca v. Lehigh Valley Coal Co.
110 A. 731 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1920)
Blouss v. Delaware, Lackawanna & Western R. R.
73 Pa. Super. 95 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1919)
Granville v. Scranton Coal Co.
76 Pa. Super. 335 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1921)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
3 Pa. D. & C. 519, 1922 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 18, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lavinski-v-delaware-lackawanna-western-r-r-pactcompllackaw-1922.