Punches v. American Box Board Co.

185 N.W. 758, 216 Mich. 342, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 465
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 21, 1921
DocketDocket No. 33
StatusPublished
Cited by20 cases

This text of 185 N.W. 758 (Punches v. American Box Board Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Punches v. American Box Board Co., 185 N.W. 758, 216 Mich. 342, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 465 (Mich. 1921).

Opinion

Stone, J.

In this proceeding the defendants and [343]*343appellants seek to reverse the findings of the industrial accident board that decedent was within the course of his employment at the time of the accident which resulted in his death, and that the accident to decedent arose out of his employment. Plaintiff claims compensation as the only dependent of Jideon Punches, her deceased husband, who, she claims, died at Grand Rapids on September 9, 1920, as the result of .an accidental personal injury sustained by him while in the employ of defendant American Box Board Company on September 8,1920. On arbitration the plaintiff was awarded compensation at the rate of $14 a week for a period of 300 weeks. From this award defendants appealed to the board. Some additional. testimony was submitted to the board and the award was affirmed.

The defendant American Box Board Company was engaged in the manufacture of corrugating and fibre shipping containers, at Grand Rapids, Michigan. In its business it had occasion to use a team of horses for the purpose of drawing straw, paper and other articles from place to place in its yards. One William Barry was the owner of a team, and the yard foreman, Arthur T. Barnes (of whose authority to act for said defendant there seems to be no question) engaged Barry to furnish his team to do this work. It was the original arrangement between Barnes and Barry that the latter was to drive his team, but as Barry was suffering from rheumatism Barnes agreed to let some of his men drive the team. Said defendant began using the team in April, 1920. For about three weeks Barry brought his team to defendant’s yard' mornings and came for it in the evening;, but when the weather became warmer, Barry, who was still suffering from rheumatism, desired to let his team remain over night in defendant’s yards. Accordingly the team was placed in a shed on the premises at [344]*344night, and was fed and cared for by different employees of said defendant, Barry furnishing the feed and hay, and occasionally coming to the plant to see about his team. At first no particular employee was charged with the duty of driving the team or caring for it, but Barnes, the foreman, appears to have taken some interest in having the team properly cared for. About June 28th the decedent entered the employ of said defendant as a laborer in the yards. It appears to have become the practice that the employee who first arrived at the yards in the morning would feed the team. As decedent usually came to work early, and was the only employee who came past the shed where the team was kept, he usually fed the team in the morning. He was familiar with the handling of horses, and in the course of time came to do most of the driving of the team, and was the most regular in caring for it. The men began their work at 7 o’clock a. m. During the summer the shed where the team had been kept was removed, and the owner brought a canvas which was stretched over poles, and the team was for a time kept under this canvas. Some five or six weeks before his death, decedent began taking the team to his home, about a mile from his place of work, where he had a barn. Barnes, the foreman, testified that he had no recollection of having given decedent any express authority to take the team to his barn nights, but that he learned of the practice about the time it began and made no objections. There was some testimony to the effect that Barnes had admitted that he expressly consented to decedent’s request that he be permitted to keep the team in his barn as a matter of convenience, but this testimony was contradicted by Barnes. The decedent kept the team in his barn nights for a period of some weeks, fed' the horses from feed furnished by Barry (but some of which had been ordered delivered at de[345]*345cedent’s place by Barnes), and decedent cared for the horses there, and drove them onto the job in the morning, with knowledge of the foreman, and without any objection from him.

It appears that decedent voluntarily quit the employ of the said defendant, about two weeks before the accident, but on the morning of the day before the accident he returned to work, “at his old job,” and drove the team and took it to his home in the evening, at the close of his work. During the time decedent did not work the team was driven by other employees, and was cared for upon the premises of said defendant in substantially the same manner as had been the practice earlier. It would seem that Barnes did not know that decedent had taken the team to his barn on the night before his accident, that no instructions had been given as to the care of the team on September 7th, and that decedent who returned to his old job of driving the team took it to his home at the end of the day, as he had previously done, without consulting the foreman. It appears from the evidence that on the morning of September 8th decedent fed the team at his home, about 5:30 o’clock, and at about 15 minutes of 7, he hitched the horses to the wagon and started towards the place of his employment, About 5 minutes after 7 o’clock the team ran up to said defendant’s yards, and upon investigation decedent was found lying near the driveway, along which it was customary for him to drive in going to and from his work. The planks which formed the wagon box, by being placed loosely upon the bolsters, were found strewn along the ground, between the point where decedent was found and the point where the team was stopped. Some of decedent’s ribs were broken, and had punctured his lungs, and he died from his injuries on the next day. We think it appears that decedent fell, or was thrown from the [346]*346wagon, while on his way to his work, and thus sustained the injuries which caused his death.

It is the claim and theory of plaintiff that it was a part of the duties of decedent to care for this team; that with the approval and consent of said defendant, through its foreman, decedent had taken this team to his home for the purpose of caring for it, and that, when driving the team from the place where it was being kept to the place of work, he was in the employ of said defendant, and that the accident thus sustained by him arose out of and in the course of his employment.

As we understand the claim of defendants, it is that decedent had taken the team to his home, either for his own personal convenience or for the convenience of the owner, and that his relations to the Box Board Company were the same as those of any other employee going to his work, i. e., that his employment did not begin until he reached his place of employment.

That there was competent legal evidence to support the claim of the plaintiff, we quote from the testimony of foreman Barnes, who was called by plaintiff for cross-examination under the statute. Among other things he testified as follows:

“Q. That was his (Punches’) business to-do that, to feed the team at home there?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And the team was supposed to be fed before it came down in the morning, before he started to work with it?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And he was to look .after the harness and keep that in shape, whatever was necessary?
“A. Yes, sir.
“Q. And the wagon?
“A, Nothing to do with the wagon.
“Q.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
185 N.W. 758, 216 Mich. 342, 1921 Mich. LEXIS 465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/punches-v-american-box-board-co-mich-1921.