Mendía v. Industrial Commission

87 P.R. 16
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedDecember 27, 1962
DocketNo. 600
StatusPublished

This text of 87 P.R. 16 (Mendía v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mendía v. Industrial Commission, 87 P.R. 16 (prsupreme 1962).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Ramírez Bages

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The Manager of the State Insurance Fund requests that we review the decision of the Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico, which grants compensation for the death of the worker Félix González Otero, which occurred when he fell and drowned in a river while he was going home from work after taking a shortcut at about one kilometer from the place of the road where his employer’s vehicle, which provided transportation to and from work, had left him.

We believe the error assigned in this case—providing-compensation—has not been committed. On the contrary, we reached the conclusion that the decision of the Commission should be affirmed.

The findings of fact on which the decision of the Commission is based are supported by substantial evidence presented in the corresponding hearing and therefore, we should accept them for the purpose of disposing of the case. Cepeda v. Industrial Commission; Rivas, Int., 76 P.R.R. 750 (1954); Colón v. Industrial Commission, 59 P.R.R. 842 (1942).

[19]*19The Commission decided that “the worker Félix González Otero lived in the ward of Morovis Norte of Morovis; that he worked with José Alicea in the latter’s farm situated in the ward Franqui of Morovis; that the employer provided transportation for the workers from their home to work and vice versa; that a bus was used for this purpose which was operated by Antonio Alicea Fernández; that the deceased worker, in order to avail himself of the transportation which the employer provided, had to wait for the bus in a specific place, for otherwise no transportation would be provided him; that this was done for the employer’s convenience because if the bus took another road in Morovis, the drive would have been longer and it would have to cross the town unnecessarily, for which reason it took the Vega Baja route, across a shortcut and out to ward Almirante Sur, and the workers used to wait for the bus in the Morovis to Corozal crossing.

“The evidence also showed that the worker’s house was nearer Morovis than Vega Baja; that the usual road to reach his house was through Morovis, so much so, that all the normal and natural activities of the life of this family, such as purchasing food, clothes, and recreation, was done in the town of Morovis and not in Vega Baja.

“Likewise, the evidence showed that the worker, following the instructions of his employer who provided him transportation, could not use the ordinary road to Morovis, but that instead, he had to cross a piece of land, cross the river, in order to reach the place where his employer’s bus was waiting. He had to take this road twice, in the morning when he took the bus, and in the afternoon when his employer’s bus left him.

“There is no doubt that the worker benefited from the transportation provided by his employer, but since there was an agreement to provide said transportation, the employer derived much more benefit by requiring the worker to wait at a specific place chosen by the employer himself.

[20]*20“On the day of the occurrence, that is, July 1, 1960, the worker went to work as usual. At the end of the day’s work he took the employer’s bus which would take him home. The bus followed the usual road from Vega Baja to Almirante Norte until it reached the Morovis-Corozal crossing, where it left the worker. The worker alighted, went on walking and when he was about to cross the river he slipped, apparently lost consciousness and drowned.”

The parties agreed that if the worker’s death was com-pensable, his dependents would be his widow, Antonia Ramos, and the minors Fernando, Ignacio, Carmen, Antonia, Florentina, and Luz Celenia González Ramos.

In view of the previously narrated facts the Commission decided that “the worker, in following his employer’s instructions, exposed himself to an additional risk, to a constant, inherent and specific danger, such as crossing the river, and this fact in itself places him . . . within the exceptions of the so-called ‘street risks,’ therefore his death occurred in the course of and arising out of his employment.” On the contrary, appellant actually alleges that the worker’s death occurred because of an accident comprised by the doctrine known as “the going and coming rule” and that since the accident occurred after the deceased had left the employer’s vehicle, and had walked nearly a kilometer through a short cut to his home, the same is not compensable.

The brief analysis which we make below of the doctrine called “street risks” as well as the one called “the going and coming rule” leads us to the conclusion that in order to reach a decision in the case at bar pursuant to the Workmen’s Accident Compensation Act,1 and which at the same time [21]*21reflects modern socio-economical approaches on workers’ compensation,

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Bluebook (online)
87 P.R. 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mendia-v-industrial-commission-prsupreme-1962.