MacKenzie v. Oregon Short Line Railroad

46 P.2d 73, 55 Idaho 663
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedJune 8, 1935
DocketNo. 6233
StatusPublished

This text of 46 P.2d 73 (MacKenzie v. Oregon Short Line Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
MacKenzie v. Oregon Short Line Railroad, 46 P.2d 73, 55 Idaho 663 (Idaho 1935).

Opinions

HOLDEN, J.

-This is a proceeding by respondent to recover compensation for the death of her husband, Niel MacKenzie, under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, and is now before this court on a second appeal.

The matter was first heard before the State Industrial Accident Board, which board found in favor of and made [665]*665an award to respondent, December 28, 1932. An appeal was taken to the district court, and from a judgment of that court, affirming the award of the Accident Board, the first appeal was taken. (In re MacKenzie, 54 Ida. 481, 33 Pac. (2d) 113.)

Upon that appeal, this court held that there was but one real question for decision, i. e.: “Did the accident which caused the death of deceased Niel MacKenzie arise out of and in the course of his employment?” And concluded that the findings of the Accident Board upon that question were insufficient to support the award, and reversed the judgment and remanded the cause with directions to the board to make specific findings.

In compliance with the order of this court, the board thereafter, July 25, 1934, made specific findings and a new award. From such findings and new award, a second appeal was prosecuted to the District Court, which court, January 4, 1935, affirmed the award of the board, and the matter is again before this court upon appeal from said last-mentioned judgment of the District Court.

Respondent has moved to dismiss the present appeal on the ground that the order of the court was final, and that the board, by its order, was merely carrying out the mandate of this court, and that the board order was, in effect, an order of this court, and that any appeal therefrom would be duplicitous and unauthorized.

In effect, the contention of respondent is that since appellant has had one appeal from the award, based upon the identical evidence here presented, a second appeal will not lie.

The award made by the Industrial Accident Board, July ■25, 1934, after the case was reversed and remanded, which was later affirmed by the District Court, is an entirely new award. When the judgment was reversed on the first appeal, the case was remanded in all respects the same as if for a new trial, but instead of ordering and directing that the evidence be again produced before the Industrial Accident Board, this court directed that the board make [666]*666specific findings, based upon the evidence previously introduced in the case.

The judgment of the District Court, affirming the new award, stands, therefore, to all intents and purposes, the same as if entered upon a new trial, and this is the first and only appeal taken from that particular judgment. (Later v. Haywood, 15 Ida. 716, 99 Pac. 828. See, also, People’s Gaslight & Coke Co. v. City of Chicago, 309 Ill. 40, 139 N. E. 867.)

An appeal, therefore, from the judgment of the District Court, affirming the new award of the Industrial Accident Board, will lie, and the motion to dismiss is denied.

Pursuant to directions of this court to make specific findings upon the single question which this court held, upon the former appeal, to be decisive, the Industrial Accident Board found:

“That when the said Niel MacKenzie, now deceased, came out of the generator building as above described, at the time the laborer in charge of the job of emptying the sump was away to get oil for the pump, he, the said MacKenzie, went toward or by the running pump which was then jumping and jerking, and stepped on the trap door to see how the work was getting on — that is to say- — to see whether it was because the sludge in the sump was nearing the bottom that caused the pump to jump and jerk; that he did this with the intention to advance the work of emptying the sump; that on several occasions since the emptying of the sump had been taken over bj^ the ‘Store Department’ the said Niel MacKenzie, now deceased, had helped in that work; that said Niel MacKenzie, now deceased, had done so to further the work of his master; and it is hereby and now specifically found that the said Niel MacKenzie stepped on the said open slimy trap door for the purpose of ascertaining what was the best thing to do in and about the situation then present and to do such best thing in, and to further, the interests of his master and not to satisfy his idle curiosity.”

[667]*667The errors assigned by appellant on this appeal present three questions for determination:

(1) The sufficiency of the evidence to support the findings.

(2) The sufficiency of the findings to sustain the new award; and

(3) The refusal of the trial court to pass upon the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the findings, and the refusal of the court to pass upon the sufficiency of the findings to sustain the new award.

Upon the first question, the record shows: That appellant owned a generator plant; that this plant was located in appellant’s yards at Pocatello, Idaho; that it was used to generate acetylene gas; that the gas was piped to appellant’s various shops, also located in its said yards; that for several years, and up until November, 1931, Niel MaeKenzie had been employed by appellant to operate the plant; that at the side of the building, housing the plant, there was a sump, located four feet from the building, into which the refuse from the generators was carried by means of a concrete conduit, and that until November, 1931, it was also MaeKenzie’s duty to, and he did, without any assistance, regularly clean out the sump; that the cleaning was done by running water and steam into the sump from the generator plant, and siphoning the softened refuse into a ear on a near-by track; that MaeKenzie, until the date of his death, was employed in the Mechanical Department of the appellant; that in November, 1931, supervision of the work of cleaning the sump was transferred from appellant’s Mechanical to its Store Department, and that thereafter, and until the date of the accident which resulted in MaeKenzie’s death, the sump was cleaned out, from time to time, by one Rasmus Knudsen (employed in the Store Department) with the o assistance of MaeKenzie, in that MaeKenzie regularly passed out to Knudsen the hose (kept inside the generator building and connected with the water faucet also inside the plant) used in cleaning the sump, and then turned the water on; that shortly prior to the [668]

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Bluebook (online)
46 P.2d 73, 55 Idaho 663, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mackenzie-v-oregon-short-line-railroad-idaho-1935.