Mahowald v. Thompson-Starrett Co.

158 N.W. 913, 134 Minn. 113, 1916 Minn. LEXIS 601
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJuly 14, 1916
DocketNos. 19,886—(245)
StatusPublished
Cited by30 cases

This text of 158 N.W. 913 (Mahowald v. Thompson-Starrett Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mahowald v. Thompson-Starrett Co., 158 N.W. 913, 134 Minn. 113, 1916 Minn. LEXIS 601 (Mich. 1916).

Opinion

Holt, J.

Action to recover damages for death by wrongful act. The jury properly found that the negligence of defendant was the proximate cause of the death of the plaintiff’s intestate, Gebhardt Mahowald, and that the damages sustained amounted, to $6,500. Defendant moved for a new trial, and plaintiff appeals from the order granting the same.

In addition to a denial of legal responsibility for the death of Mahowald the answer averred that he, the Barnard-Cope Manufacturing Company (his employer), and defendant were all under and bound by chapter 467, p. 675, Laws 1913, known as the Workmen’s Compensation Act, and that Mahowald’s death was caused by an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, hence plaintiff was not entitled to maintain this action. At the trial neither party requested the court to submit to the jury any question of fact relative to the application of the Workmen’s Compensation Act as a defense herein, and no such question was submitted. The defendant, however, at the conclusion of the testimony, and again on the motion for a new trial, insisted that if there was liability it was governed by the act. This view was finally adopted by the court, but is challenged by this appeal.

The facts are these: Mahowald was and for more than a year had been, a teamster for the Barnard-Cope Manufacturing Company, in the general delivery of furniture in the city of Minneapolis, receiving $60 per month as wages. The team he drove belonged to the company. Shortly before three o’clock in the afternoon of August 19, 1914, he left his employer’s factory on the east side of the river, in Minneapolis, with a light load of furniture, part of which was to be delivered to the New England, a store at Fifth street and Marquette avenue, and part to the Milwaukee [115]*115freight depot. The City Hall is situated on the route between the two places where he had to deliver the load, and he undertook to stop on his way and pay the water tax for his foreman. He did deliver the part which was to go to the New England, and was driving on Fifth street towards Second avenue south, with part of the load still on the wagon. As he came opposite the First & Security National Bank building, then under construction, a heavy load of s^el beams weighing over 13 tons broke the hoisting apparatus and fell from the eighteenth story of the building out upon the street where Mahowald was passing, instantly killing him, the team, and another person riding in the wagon.

Plaintiff makes the point that defendant did not prove that Mahowald’s employer was under the compensation act. It is. too technical and of no merit, being based on the fact that the witnesses as well as the attorneys at times designated the employer as Barnard & Cope, Barnard & Cope Company, and Barnard-Cope Company, instead of using the true name, Barnard-Cope Manufacturing Company. Moreover, the presumption according to section 8205, G. S. 1913, is that both Mahowald and his employer had accepted and were bound by the compensation act.

The facts above recited are undisputed. In the court below, as well as here, both parties took the stand that it is a question of law whether those facts call for an assessment of damages under the compensation act, or under section 8175, G. S. 1913. We shall take the same position in considering the appeal.

The Workmen’s Compensation Act was designed to furnish compensation whenever employees suffer injury of death in the course of the employment from accidents arising out of it. It was intended to let those employers and employes, who so have chosen, escape from the harsh consequences which so often result from the application to their status of the common law rule of negligence, contributory negligence, assumption of risk and the negligence of fellow servant. And every person who is entitled to avail himself of the compensation law is presumed to have so done when the relation of emloyer and employee was assumed. As remedial legislation it should not receive a narrow construction, but should be applied fairly and broadly with a view to confer the benefits intended. It may be that in some particular case, remedies afforded by the law outside of this act would be to the servant’s advantage. But where [116]*116both employer and employee have concluded to be bound by the compensation act, in respect to accidental injuries suffered in the employment, courts should not be too prone to exclude an accident when it does occur from the operation of the compact. It will not do to adopt a rule excluding an accidental injury from the compensation act, if the servant may recover more damages under other provisions of law, and including it only when otherwise no compensation is attainable. Both employer and employee must be treated with the same fairness. Had the death of Mahowald been brought about by some irresponsible party, under circumstances such as here, would the Barnard-Cope Manufacturing Company bé compelled to pay his dependents compensation ? Clearly it would not, except under the Workmen’s Compensation Act. But if the Barnard-Cope Manufacturing Company is liable under the act, then this defendant, also being thereunder, is liable to the same extent, but no further.

That the accident befell Mahowald in the course of his employment admits of no doubt. He was then doing his usual work in a customary manner, driving along a street at a place where properly he might be expected to travel in the discharge of the duties in hand. There was no departure from the master’s service up to the accident. The question not so free from doubt is whether the accident arose out of his employment. We think it should be held to have so arisen. Mahowald’s duties kept him continuously on the streets of a large city in charge of his employer’s team. In that position certain risks are inherent, such as collisions between his team and other vehicles, runaways and the like. The erection of new buildings is constantly going on, hoisting materials for these, as well as hoisting heavy articles in moving, is often done over or adjacent to the traveled portions of the street. These matters, and others, involve risks to a teamster whose attention has also to be given to his team and the road. Had this heavy load of beams crashed to the street just in front of the team, thereby causing a runaway resulting in his death, could it have been said that the accident did not arise out of his employment? We apprehend not. There would seem to be no good reason for drawing a distinction between the supposed case and this. “An injury to come within the compensation act need not be an anticipated one; nor, in general, need it be one peculiar to the particular emloyment in which he (the employee) is engaged at the time.” State v. District Court of Ram[117]*117sey County, 129 Minn. 502, 153 N. W. 119, L.R.A. 1916A, 344. Tlie accident which befell Mahowald was a street risk. If his employment as a teamster upon the streets of a large city, where he not only had to look out for his own safety but also for that of his employer’s team and rig, necessarily accentuated the street risks to him above those to other occasional travelers, it suffices for the conclusion that this accident arose out of his employment. Although the risk from the accident in question may be said to be external to the employment, yet the employment caused a special degree of exposure to this risk. Chartres, Judicial Interpretations of Workmen’s Compensation Law, p. 139. The following authorities may be said to support this conclusion: Pierce v. Provident Clothing & Supply Co. 4 Butterworths’ W. C. C. 242; M’Neice v. Singer Sewing Machine Co.

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Bluebook (online)
158 N.W. 913, 134 Minn. 113, 1916 Minn. LEXIS 601, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mahowald-v-thompson-starrett-co-minn-1916.