Texas Employers Ins. Ass'n v. Grammar

157 S.W.2d 701, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 1051
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 28, 1941
DocketNo. 13092
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 157 S.W.2d 701 (Texas Employers Ins. Ass'n v. Grammar) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Texas Employers Ins. Ass'n v. Grammar, 157 S.W.2d 701, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 1051 (Tex. Ct. App. 1941).

Opinions

BOND, Chief Justice.

This is a case arising under the Workmen’s Compensation Law, Vernon’s Ann. Civ.St. Art. 8306 et seq. On findings of the jury, judgment was entered, sustaining compensable injury, from which this appeal is prosecuted. The only question presented is that appellee, at the time he received his injuries, was not in the course of his employment with Morton Salt Company.

Appellee, Sam Grammar, was injured by being struck by a motor vehicle while walking down a public highway to his employer’s premises where he would perform the tasks of his daily employment. He was employed by Morton Salt Company at its plant located about a mile or a mile and a half south of the town of Grand Saline. He had no task to perform outside the plant. At the time of his injury, Grammar had not begun his employment for the day; had not reached his employer’s premises, and was doing nothing in furtherance of his employer’s business. The relation of master and servant did not exist at the time of his injury.

The record shows that some of the employes of Morton Salt Company were re[703]*703quired to begin work at the plant at 7:30 in the morning; others at 6:30. Those beginning at 7:30 were privileged to ride to work in the company trucks. They were told that if they wanted to ride in the trucks, they should meet at a certain place in time to arrive at the plant at 7:30 Those beginning at 6:30 had to make other arrangements. There is no evidence of agreement concerning transportation. Transportation was no part of the contract of employment with either group. Some employes walked, others rode in private cars, and some few rode in the company trucks. Mr. Grammar was in the 6:30 group; had worked in that group, as a janitor, five or six years, or ever since the plant started; and for two months prior to his injury, he picked out blue lumps of salt (non-commercial) that came out on a shaker. The janitor work was required to be done between 6:30 and 7:30 A. M., for which he was allowed an extra hour on his daily_ wages. Mr. Grammar selected his own way of going to the plant to begin his work; never used the company trucks, except in a few instances after he first began working at the plant. On the morning of the accident, he left home early in order to reach the plant by 6:30 and, while walking on the highway en route to work, before the hour to begin his employment, he was severely injured by an automobile. He saw the automobile approaching in a zigzag manner, evidently being operated by a drunken driver, and in a vain attempt to escape being struck, stepped off the road into the barrow pit or ditch, where he was knocked down and injured.

We think it is now well established in this state that, as a general rule, an employe, while going to and from his place of work, is not in the course of his employment, and the injuries he receives while so engaged are not compensable under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of this state. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co. v. Flanagan, 134 Tex. 374, 136 S.W.2d 210; Smith v. Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n, 129 Tex. 573, 105 S.W.2d 192; London Guarantee & Accident Co. v. Thetford, Tex.Com.App., 292 S.W. 857; American Indemnity Co. v. Dinkins, Tex.Civ.App., 211 S.W. 949; Sullivan v. Maryland Casualty Co., Tex.Civ. App., 82 S.W.2d 1089; Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Palmer, Tex.Civ.App., 286 S.W. 283, writ refused; London Guaranty & Accident Co. v. Smith, Tex.Civ.App., 290 S.W. 774, writ refused; Banks v. Commercial Standard Ins. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 78 S.W.2d 660.

Sec. 1, Art. 8309, R.-C.S.1925, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8309, § 1, in defining the term “Injury sustained in the course of employment,” after excluding injury sustained in a certain manner, provides: “ * * * shall include all other injuries of every kind and character having to do with and originating in the work, business, trade or profession of the employer received by an employé while engaged in or about the furtherance of the affairs or business of his employer whether upon the employer’s premises or elsewhere.” Under this provision of the statute, it has been uniformly held that an injury received by an employe is compensable only when of such kind and character as had to do with and originated in the work, business, trade or profession of the employer, and when the injury occurred at a time when the employe was engaged in or about the furtherance of his employer’s business.

In the case of Sullivan v. Maryland Casualty Co., supra, recovery was denied by our Court of Civil Appeals on the ground that the employe had chosen to go to work by the shortest route, leading through an alley, across a railroad track and down a poorly lighted street, and while on the street, about 150 feet from the employer’s premises, he was assaulted; the reason advanced for refusal of compensation being that, the employe was subject only to the ordinary hazards of the street, and was at the place where he was injured only for the purpose of reaching his place of labor. In Aetna Life Ins. Co. v. Palmer (writ refused), supra, the deceased, a general foreman, was subject to call at any time. On the morning of the accident, he had been ordered to be at the plant early for a special purpose. As he was walking to the plant, he was struck by a passing truck. The court held that the injury had not been sustained in the course of his employment; that the fact he was subject to call at any time did not require a use of the public streets different from that for which all persons use them at such times. Recovery was also denied in London Guaranty & Accident Co. v. Smith (writ refused), supra. The claimant, a salesgirl and assistant buyer, whose hours on Saturday were until 9 o’clock, had been instructed by her employer to hurry home for supper, then return and go to a hotel to inspect samples of merchandise. She was injured while crossing the street on her way to supper. The court held that the injury had not been received in the course of employment, reasoning, among other things, that her act was [704]*704not one in furtherance of her employer’s business. In Banks v. Commercial Standard Ins. Co., supra, the employe had been delayed by his foreman on the way to lunch, and was struck while hurrying across the street toward a restaurant. There was the additional fact that he was subject to call throughout the day. This court denied recovery on the ground that the hazards the employe encountered on the public street were not different from those to which the public in general was exposed, and in going on the street he was not acting in furtherance of any business for his employer. In American Indemnity Co. v. Dinkins [211 S. W. 952], the deceased, after leaving his employer’s premises for the day, was struck by an automobile while riding his motorcycle on a public highway. The route taken by the employe was the only one that could have been used, and the company not only tacitly invited the employes to use it, but practically required them to do so. The court held that the injury was not one received in the course of employment, but, on the contrary, was one that might occur to any person on any street, regardless of his employment.

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157 S.W.2d 701, 1941 Tex. App. LEXIS 1051, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-employers-ins-assn-v-grammar-texapp-1941.