Seabreeze Industries, Inc. v. Phily

118 So. 2d 54
CourtDistrict Court of Appeal of Florida
DecidedFebruary 5, 1960
DocketNo. 1459
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 118 So. 2d 54 (Seabreeze Industries, Inc. v. Phily) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court of Appeal of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Seabreeze Industries, Inc. v. Phily, 118 So. 2d 54 (Fla. Ct. App. 1960).

Opinion

KANNER, Acting Chief Judge.

The insurance carrier, asserting that the -fatal accident which befell Fernand M. Phily, deceased employee of Seabreeze Industries, Inc., did not arise out of and in the course of the employment, controverted the claim for dependency benefits brought ■pursuant to section 440.16, Florida Statutes, F.S.A., on behalf of the widow and three ■minor children of the deceased. By order Tendered December 10, 1958, the deputy •commissioner denied the dependency benefits ; and by order entered June 4, 1959, the full commission reversed this ruling, holding that the deputy had erred in his application of the law to the facts of the cause. 'Consequently, the carrier and the employer Lave petitioned for writ of certiorari.

While enroute to his place of employment ■on July 8, 1958, the employee was killed ■when he was struck by a train at a railroad •crossing at N. E. 45th Street in the City of Fort Lauderdale at 7:53 a. m., seven min■utes before he was to report for work. He was not on a mission of the employer at ■the time; his car was not being used in ■connection with the employer’s business, and gas and maintenance for the automobile were not supplied by the employer.

The railroad involved is the Florida East ■Coast Railway, which runs in a northerly-■southerly direction through the City of Fort Lauderdale. The employee’s home was ■east of the railroad track, and the shop where he was employed was about one ■quarter mile west of the track. In traveling between these two points the employee '•had to cross the tracks, although employees ■residing west of the railroad could reach ithe shop by use of the public roads without .so doing. The route followed by the employee on the day he was killed crossed the railroad track at N. E. 45th Street, then intersected Dixie Highway, a main four-lane thoroughfare running between the railroad and the shop, then continued along 45th Street to the shop.

This route, used by the public, was not the only route the deceased could have taken. In addition to an alternate route of the same or of a slightly shorter distance, a number of more circuitous routes are disclosed by a map of the city, all of the available routes being public roads. Had the employee chosen the shortest alternate route, he could have crossed the railroad at N. E. 31st Street, turned north on Dixie Highway to 45th Street, thence west to the shop. At the time he was hired, the employee was advised by his immediate supervisor about the location of the shop and of the alternate routes thereto, although he was not ordered to use any particular course of travel but was free to choose optional ways.

The deputy commissioner found, in the main: that the railway crossing at N. E. 45th Street and the Florida East Coast Railway tracks was not a hazardous crossing peculiar to the plant of the employer and to the employees, but that it constituted, rather, a situation to which the general public of Fort Lauderdale was exposed; that the employee was not directed or ordered to use any particular route; that the route the employee was traveling at the time he was killed was on a public roadway separated from the shop, one quarter mile away, by a main thoroughfare, and that an optional route was available to the employee. He concluded that the crossing involved was not a means of ingress or egress to the employer’s shop; and that the accidental death of the employee did not arise out of and in the course of his employment, but was attributable to factors affecting the general public.

The determinative question of the case is whether the deputy commissioner erred in the application of the law to the [56]*56facts. Basically, the deputy commissioner is the trier of the facts; and the full commission, as the reviewing body, is required to adhere to his findings of fact unless there is no competent substantial evidence to sustain them. The duty rests on the full commission to determine whether the findings of the deputy are supported by the record, and, if so, to determine whether his order is correct under the law. Naranja Rock Co. v. Dawal Farms, Fla.1954, 74 So.2d 282; and United States Casualty Co. v. Maryland Casualty Co., Fla.1951, 55 So.2d 741.

At this juncture we observe that the deputy commissioner found, “ * * * that deceased was not ordered or directed by his employer to travel to work by way of the route on which he was killed. Deceased was free to take optional routes available to him.” The full commission found, « * * * the employee was using this particular route as a result of directions given to him by his immediate supervisor.” Both the petitioners and the respondents have construed this as meaning that the commission found the employee had been directed to use the particular route upon which he was traveling when killed. The petitioners assert that this finding was contrary to the finding of the deputy commissioner and that, since competent substantial evidence sustained the commissioner’s finding, the full commission should have adhered to it. If the quoted finding of the full commission was intended to be interpreted as the parties have construed it, we must say, nevertheless, that there was competent substantial evidence to support the specific finding of the deputy commissioner as quoted; and the full commission was thus bound to this finding.

Although the claimant widow cited a number of authorities, the principal case relied upon is that of Naranja Rock Co. v. Dawal Farms. The deputy commissioner concluded that the Naranja case did not control the factual situation here. However, the full commission, determining otherwise, held that the particular crossing constituted a special hazard, thereby becoming, under the Naranja case, a hazard of the employment.

A general rule applicable to employees having fixed hours and place of work is that the hazards they encounter while proceeding to or returning from their place of work, while off the premises of their employer, are not ordinarily incident to the employment; therefore, injuries resulting from such hazards are not compensable as arising out of and in the course of the employment. 58 Am.Jur., Workmen’s Compensation, section 217, p. 723; and Larson’s Workmen’s Compensation Law, section 15, p. 194. There are several well-recognized exceptions to this general rule, however, the most common of these being, as expressed in section 15.13, p. 197, Larson’s Workmen’s-Compensation Law, that if the off-premises-point where the injury occurred lies on the only route or at least on the normal route the employees must use to reach their work,, the hazards of the route become the hazards-of the employment.

The Florida Supreme Court applied this particular exception in the Naranja case, stating the principle thus:

“Where there is a special hazard on a normal route used by an employee as a means of entry to and exit from his place of work, the hazards of that route under appropriate circumstances become the hazards of the employment.” [74 So.2d 286.] (Emphasis supplied.)

However, the court in the Naranja case recognized that there cannot exist any precise formula by which all cases of that type may be automatically solved. Whether a given accident is related or incident to the business of the employer must depend upon and be governed by its own particular circumstances as to whether the injury arose out of and in the course of the employment. See also Indian Creek Coal & Mining Co. v. Wehr, 1920, 74 Ind.App. 141, 127 N.E. 202, 128 N.E. 765; General Steel Castings Corp. v. Industrial Commission, 1944, 388 Ill.

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