Pacific Fruit Express Co. v. Industrial Commission

258 P. 253, 32 Ariz. 299, 55 A.L.R. 975, 1927 Ariz. LEXIS 173
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 5, 1927
DocketCivil No. 2616.
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 258 P. 253 (Pacific Fruit Express Co. v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pacific Fruit Express Co. v. Industrial Commission, 258 P. 253, 32 Ariz. 299, 55 A.L.R. 975, 1927 Ariz. LEXIS 173 (Ark. 1927).

Opinion

ROSS, C. J.

The petitioner, Pacific Fruit Express Company, self-insurer, seeks to have annulled an award made in favor of Marie Espinoza Grijalva, by the Industrial Commission, for the death of her son, Carlos Grijalva, upon whom she claims to have been dependent.

The Commission determined that Grijalva, who died on the sixteenth day of April, 1926, came to his *301 death through accidental means while he was in the employ of the petitioner. It is the contention of the petitioner that the award cannot be sustained because it was not shown that the death of Garlos Grijalva was produced by causes arising out of and in the course of his employment. Both the petitioner and the applicant for compensation seem to be satisfied with the finding on that point, one contending that it does not support the award, whereas the other insists that it does. The finding is as follows:

“That the above-named deceased, while employed in the state of Arizona by the above-named defendant employer, as a yard laborer, was engaged on the 16th day of April, 1926, in gathering and removing waste paper and refuse from the yard of said employer. On said day there was a train of railroad cars standing in the yard of said employer and said employee was resting from his labors under or between the cars when a sudden movement of the cars caused him to fall upon the track, with the result that the wheels passed over him and killed him. The death of said deceased on said day was proximately caused by an accident arising out of and in the course of his said employment.”

The petitioner contends that the evidence does not justify the ultimate conclusion of the above finding, but does not except to the findings of fact as therein stated. The findings in that regard will therefore be treated as correct, and we recite the evidence, or some portions of it, only to explain and elucidate the findings.

The deceased was one of a number of employees of petitioner, working in its railroad yards at Tucson, Arizona, their duties being to sweep out cars after they were placed in the yards and thereafter to gather up from the yards the sweepings and make disposition of them. In the yards were six tracks. The evidence does not show how many of such tracks were occupied by cars on the day of the accident— *302 probably two, and maybe more. All tbe cars in the yard had been swept, this part of the work being finished at about 3 or 3:30 P. M. They then began the work of gathering the sweepings from the yard and continued such occupation until some 15 minutes before 4 o’clock, or quitting time, when it appears the deceased and two or three other workmen took seats on the rails, under one of the cars on track No. 2, and two or three stood near and in front of them in conversation; and while thus engaged, an engine was attached to the train occupying track No. 2, the impact causing the car under which deceased was sitting' to run over him before he could get out of its way. The sweepings had not all been gathered from the yard when deceased and his fellow employees quit work, and no reason or excuse is given why they did not continue at that task.

While the deceased and his fellow-workmen were under the car, they were warned by two other employees of petitioner of the danger they were in. There was no evidence that it had been the habit or custom of the deceased and his fellow-workmen to rest under cars like this, or that the officers of the petitioner had any knowledge of their doing so.

When the cars were first placed in the yard it was the rule to indicate by blue flags that they were there for sweeping, and as soon as they had been swept the blue flags were removed indicating that the cars might be moved at any time. This rule was known by the yard employees, and they also knew the blue flag had been removed from the cars on track No. 2 some time before the accident.

It is obvious from the evidence that the deceased came to his death by reason of his own negligence, but that will not defeat the claim for compensation providing at the time he was killed he was engaged in the performance of the work he was employed to do, or in work incidental to his employment. As said *303 by us in tbe Leftwicb case (Ocean Accident & Guarantee Corporation, Ltd., v. Industrial Commission, ante, p. 265, 257 Pac. 641), just decided, the kind of accidental injury for which compensation may be allowed is one arising out of and in the course of the employment, and it is incumbent upon the claimant for compensation to show that his case falls within those terms. In making a decision as to whether the facts bring this case within the terms of the Compensation Law (Laws 1925, Chap. 83), it is well to have in mind as clear an understanding of the meaning of the phrase, “arising out of and in the course of employment,” as it is possible to obtain, and for that reason we have taken the liberty of quoting at large from a recent case, Brady v. Oregon Lumber Co., 117 Or. 188, 45 A. L. R. 812, 243 Pac. 96, a number of different expositions of the phrase collected by that court: *304 out of ’ ’ were added, so that the proof of the one without the other will not bring* a case within the act. The term “arising out of” in the act points to the origin or cause of the injury. It presupposes a causal connection between the employment and the injury. Larke v. John Hancock Mut. L. Ins. Co., 90 Conn. 303, L. R. A. 1916E 584, 97 Atl. 320, 12 N. C. C. A. 308. The words “out of” involve the idea that the accident is in some sense due to the employment. Griffith v. Cole Bros., 183 Iowa 415, L. R. A. 1918F 923, 165 N. W. 577, 15 N. C. C. A. 674,’

*303 “The words ‘arising out of and in the course of his employment,’ as used in the Workmen’s Compensation Law [Or. L., § 6616], should be given a broad and liberal construction. This is the holding of many courts, including our own. In a valuable note appearing in Ann. Cas. 1918B 769, the view of different courts concerning a workman’s right to compensation under laws similar to our own is set down. We quote therefrom the following:
“ ‘To entitle a workman to an award of compensation under a Workmen’s Compensation Act, his injuries must result from an accident both arising out of and in the course of his employment. The two elements must coexist- They must be concurrent and simnltaneous. The one without the other will not sustain an award. Yet the two are so entwined that they are usually considered together in the reported cases, and a discussion of one of them involves the other. . . . “In the course of” points to the place and circumstances under which the accident takes place and the time when it occurred. In order to restrict beyond the reach of question the words “in the course of the employment,” the words “arising

*304 “In treating this question the Supreme Court of Texas said, in the case of Lumberman’s Reciprocal Assn. v. Behnken, 112 Tex. 103, 110, 28 A. L. R.

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Bluebook (online)
258 P. 253, 32 Ariz. 299, 55 A.L.R. 975, 1927 Ariz. LEXIS 173, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pacific-fruit-express-co-v-industrial-commission-ariz-1927.