Standard Theatres, Inc. v. Young

1935 OK 681, 46 P.2d 457, 172 Okla. 560, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 332
Supreme Court of Oklahoma·Decided June 11, 1935·No. No. 26018.·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

PHELPS, J.

The claimant, Will Young, was employed by the Liberty Theatre in Oklahoma City as a porter. He performed the usual duties of a porter, cleaning up, running errands and being a general hands man. Sometimes he also went into the moving picture machine booth, where there was an electrically-driven projection machine, and kept watch while the man employed on that job would absent himself temporarily. Although at the hearing claimant at one place stated, “I operate it and watch the machinery,” the record is otherwise absolutely devoid of any intimation that claimant purported to assist in the handling of the projector. In the beginning of the hearing, when he was asked, “Did you work in there about this machinery?” he answered, “No more than go1 in and clean up and relieve him.” In this particular connection, whatever inference may be drawn from the foregoing evidence is immaterial when considered with the fact of the particular duties he was performing when injured. The theatre had the customary array of electric lights1 and signs on the outside. It was part of the plaintiff’s duties to inspect the’ signs and the lights and see that the bulbs were burning. When bulbs were burned out he inserted new ones and sometimes he would tape the wire connections, although he testified that he was not the electrician; that he was not supposed to do any electrical work around the theatre, that if electrical repairs were necessary the manager called an electrician.

In the alley north of the theatre there was a light socket on the side of the building, over a door, so the alley would receive some illumination. The porter customarily screwed a light bulb into this socket at night, and unscrewed it when, the lights were turned off. On the occasion of the injury, instead of using a ladder as was his custom, he stood on a bannister of the fire escape. While standing there, and screwing .the light bulb into the socket, his foot slipped and he fell to the ground, sustaining the injury for which the Industrial Commission awarded him compensation. He did not receive any electrical shock.

The petitioners urge here, as they did in the Industrial Commission, that, as a matter of law, the theatre was not engaged in operating la business covered within the Workmen’s Compensation Act, and that claimant at the time of the injury was not engaged in a hazardous employment within the meaning of the act, and that therefore the Commission was without jurisdiction to award compensation.

The claimant contends that although he was called a porter he was used by his em *561 ployer as an assistant operator oí the picture machine, which was power driven, and that he was also performing the duties of house electrician, which required the repairing of electric lights. It is difficult to conceive just what connection, if any, existed between those duties and his injury, or the cause of his injury. There is no doubt that the injury was sustained in the course of the employment and arose out of the employment. — but that is not the question. The question is whether the claimant was performing such duties, in such an occupation, as would entitle him to compensation under the act. If the claimant was ever engaged in work involving the power-driven picture machine, the task at which he was employed when injured had no connection with it nor relationship to it. He may as ,well have been a carpenter working hack stage where there was no power-driven machinery. That his foot slipped from the bannister is no more attributable to his “electrical” work than if he had slipped on a banana peel in the alley, as he was approaching the place where he was later injured. Of course, when he. had climbed onto the bannister he was in a more hazardous undertaking than when standing in the alley, but it is not the hazardous character of the particular undertaking so much as it is the general nature of the duties required of a claimant which determines whether he is engaged in a hazardous employment within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. One who is engaged in an employment classified as nonhazardous often is temporarily engaged in an undertaking which •is hazardous in fact, but which would not be hazardous employment within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Act.

In the case of Warner Bros. v. State Industrial Commission, 169 Okla. 479, 38 P. (2d) 5, the claimant was employed by the Polly Theatre in Oklahoma City as an usher. While standing on a desk engaged in changing some placards, he fell and was injured. This court vacated an award in his favor. We are unable to make any distinction between that case and the present case which would be sufficient to authorize 'a difference in results. Although in that case the claimant never worked in the projecting room and in the present case claimant did state that at times he worked in the room, it is obvious that that was only an occasional duty, and that he was injured on the outside of the building while engaged in a totally different task. It is difficult to comprehend what difference his occasional presence in the projecting room would make. We quote from that case:

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Standard Theatres, Inc. v. Young, 1935 OK 681, 46 P.2d 457, 172 Okla. 560, 1935 Okla. LEXIS 332 (Okla. 1935).

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