Payton v. City of Anadarko

1937 OK 49, 64 P.2d 878, 179 Okla. 68, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 684
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 26, 1937
DocketNo. 27228.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 1937 OK 49 (Payton v. City of Anadarko) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Payton v. City of Anadarko, 1937 OK 49, 64 P.2d 878, 179 Okla. 68, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 684 (Okla. 1937).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

Claimant, as petitioner, seeks to vacate the order of the State Industrial Commission denying an award for a personal injury received March 19, 1935, while in the employ of the city of Anadarko and while engaged in working in the sewer department of such city. Petitioner relies upon Board of County Commissioners v. Whitlow, 88 Okla. 72, 211 P. 1021, and Whiteneck, Adm’x, v. Board of Commissioners of Woods County, 89 Okla. 52, 213 P. 865, while the respondent cites and relies upon the City of Muskogee v. State Industrial Commission, 150 Okla. 94, 300 P. 627. Petitioner states that those cases are in apparent conflict and that the latter opinion overlooked the former opinions.

Subsequent to those opinions we decided the case of Board of Commissioners of Tulsa County v. Bilby, 174 Okla. 199, 201, 50 P. (2d) 398, 400, in which these cases above cited, together with many others by this court, were analyzed and the apparent confusion in some of the opinions noted as follows :

“Subsequent to these decisions in the above cases, in the case of Oklahoma City v. Foster, 118 Okla. 120, 247 P. 80, 47 A. L. R. 822, and Oklahoma City v. Baldwin, 133 Okla. 289, 272 P. 453, this court had occasion to distinguish between the corporate and governmental functions of a municipality and the resulting liability or nonliability depending upon the capacity in which the municipality was acting at the time, and these decisions have tinged some of the subsequent decisions of this court involving the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Law so that at first glance there appears to be some confusion in the rule to be followed. Por this reason we deem it advisable at this time to briefly review the prior decisions of this court and to restate the applicable rule so that no confusion can in the future arise on this particular question. We find that in Mashburn v. City of Grandfield, 142 Okla. 247, 286 P. 789, the distinction- between the corporate and governmental functions of a municipality in connection with the Workmen’s Compensation Law was first raised, and therein it was held:
“ ‘Under Comp. Stat. 1921, sections 7283, 7284, a municipality becomes subject to the obligations imposed by the Workmen’s Com-pensatio.n Act only when such municipality is engaged in one of the hazardous occupations described or enumerated in said section 7283 of the Statutes.’ ”

After a review of the cases subsequent thereto we further say (p. 202, 174 Okla) :

“Thereafter, in the case of Board of Com’rs of Marshall County v. Lacy, 161 Okla. 138, 17 P. (2d) 398, the rule previously, announced by this court in Whiteneck, Adm’x, v. Board of Com’rs of Woods County, 89 Okla. 52, 213 P. 865, and Board of Com’rs of Pawnee County v. Whitlow, 88 Okla. 72, 211 P. 1021, was reannounced and followed.”

We then review City of Duncan v. Ray, 164 Okla. 205, 23 P. (2d) 694; City of Tulsa v. Hunt, 164 Okla. 262, 23 P. (2d) 640; Board of Commissioners of Garfield County v. Sims, 166 Okla. 298, 27 P. (2d) 633. A reading of these cases will readily reveal the facts involved and the principle announced and we will refrain from analyzing* them here. We then therein stated (p. 202, 174 Okla.) ;

“We think it is fairly dedueible from a reading of the Workmen’s Compensation' Act itself and of the above-quoted decisions that it was the purpose of the Legislature to place the employees of the state, county, city, or any municipality on a parity with the employees of nrivsre induRtrirs whenever the state, county, city, or any municipality is engaged in any of the occupations enumerated and specifically declared to be hazardous by the statutes. Where the occupation is such that it might be carried on by private individuals for pecuniary gain and is not peculiar to governmental functions, we are of the opinion that an occupation which ordinarily is carried on by private persons for pecuniary gain does not lose its character as such when engaged in by the state, county, city, or any municipality, and there *70 fore is not excluded from the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act by reason of subdivision 5 of section 13350, O. S. 1931, but that said subdivision was intended to apply to organizations or associations operated and conducted solely for purposes wherein the element of pecuniary gain is 'entirely absent and that a municipality when engaged in any of the occupations _ enumerated in section 13349, O. S. 1931, is so engaged for pecuniary gain and therein operates in its corporate and not in its governmental capacity.
“Since construction of ‘public roads’ is enumerated in the Workmen’s Compensation Act as one of the hazardous occupations in which the employee shall be entitled to compensation under the provisions of. the act, from what has been said above it is apparent that the contention of the petitioner as advanced under the first proposition herein is without support either in the law or the decisions of this court and must be decided against the petitioner- on this point.”

Subdivision 14, section 13350, O. S. 1931, is as follows:

“ ‘Construction work’ or ‘engineering work’ means improvement or alteration or repair of buildings, structures, streets, highways, sewers, street railways, railroads, logging roads, interurban railroads, electric, steam or water plants, telegraph and telephone plants and lines, electric lines or car lines, and includes any other work for the construction, altering or repairing for which machinery driven by mechanical power is used.”

, It will he seen, therefore, that eliminating subdivision 5 of 13350, O. S. 1931, from the decisions relating to municipalities, and giving claimant the benefit of subdivision 14, supra, if he was engaged in the improvement, alteration, "or repair of a sewer within the terms of the act, he would be entitled to recover whether the improvement, alteration or repair was for pecuniary gain or not.

Claimant testified on . the date of the injury, while in the employ of the city, he went to unstop a sewer, and that he entered the main sewer and went to the lateral to one of the houses, and after he had unstopped the lateral and was emerging from the manhole he was struck by a ear driven by a third party and injured.

A stipulation of the parties states as follows :

“It is hereby stipulated and agreed by and between the claimant, Wash Payton, represented by his attorneys, Tolbert & Tol-bert, and Gillespie, and the city of Ana-darko, represented by its city attorney, Sam L. Wilhite, that the claimant, Wash Payton, was, on the 19th day of March, 1935, employed by the city of Anadarko, and working under Claude Adams, a regular employee of the city in charge of the sewer system of the city of Anadarko, and at the time of the injury, the claimant, Wash Payton, was climbing out of the storm manhole at the intersec.ion of ■ Sixtii street and Central boulevard when an automobile driven by some one not connected with the city, in passing, struck the claimant on the head, from which he suffered an injury in the neck and spinal column.”

The testimony of Claude Adams quoted by the petitioner is as follows:

“Q. And you say you found this sewer had been choked here? A. Yes. Q. And you told Wash to go and clean it out? A. I went and got him. Q.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

City of Enid v. Public Employees Relations Board
2006 OK 16 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 2006)
Jarvis v. City of Stillwater
1983 OK 88 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1983)
Oklahoma City v. Boggs
1969 OK 105 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1969)
Oklahoma City v. Newell
1967 OK 101 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1967)
Town of Wellston v. State Industrial Court
1963 OK 160 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1963)
City of Tulsa v. Davis
1962 OK 214 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1962)
City of Tulsa v. State Industrial Commission
1957 OK 219 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1957)
Ward v. Oklahoma Tax Commission
1957 OK 141 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1957)
City of Ardmore v. Wickware
1956 OK 174 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1956)
Thigpen v. Board of County Commissioners
1954 OK 350 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1954)
Drainage District No. 12 v. State Industrial Commission
1952 OK 152 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1952)
Carter v. City of Tulsa
1949 OK 169 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1949)
City of Hobart v. Wagoner
1943 OK 8 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1943)
Montgomery v. State Industrial Commission
1942 OK 149 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1942)
City of Grandfield v. Davis
1941 OK 216 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1941)
Oklahoma City v. State Industrial Commission
1938 OK 329 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1938)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1937 OK 49, 64 P.2d 878, 179 Okla. 68, 1937 Okla. LEXIS 684, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/payton-v-city-of-anadarko-okla-1937.