Travelers Ins. Co. v. Cason

• Decision Date: 08 February 1939
• Docket Number: No. 23936.,23936.
• Citation: 124 S.W.2d 321
• Parties: TRAVELERS INS. CO. v. CASON.
• Court: Texas Supreme Court

Page 321

124 S.W.2d 321

TRAVELERS INS. CO. v. CASON.

No. 23936.

Supreme Court of Texas.

February 8, 1939.

Error to Court of Civil Appeals of Eighth Supreme Judicial District.

Suit under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Elbert Cason against the Travelers Insurance Company to set aside an award of the Industrial Board. Judgment for the plaintiff was affirmed by the Court of Civil Appeals, 122 S.W.2d 694, and the Insurance Company applies for a writ of error.

Application refused.

Thompson, Knight, Baker & Harris and Pinkney Grissom, all of Dallas, for plaintiff in error.

White & Yarborough, of Dallas, for defendant in error.

CRITZ, Justice.

This appeal is before us on application for writ of error. It involves the proper construction to be given what is generally designated as the extraterritorial portion of our Workmen's Compensation Law, and the application of the facts of this case to such law. The statute in question is (Sec. 1) of Section 19 of Article 8306, R.C.S. 1925, as amended, Vernon's Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306, § 19. The portion of such statute that is pertinent here reads as follows:

"Sec. 19. (Sec. 1) If an employee, who has been hired in this State, sustain injury in the course of his employment he shall be entitled to compensation according to the Law of this State even though such injury was received outside of the State, and that such employee, though injured out of the State of Texas, shall be entitled to the same rights and remedies as if injured within the State of Texas, except that in such cases of injury outside of Texas, the suit of either the injured employee or his beneficiaries, or of the Association, to set aside an award of the Industrial Accident Board of Texas, or to enforce it, as mentioned in Article 8307, Sections 5-5a, shall be brought either

* * * * * *

"Providing that such injury shall have occurred within one year from the date such injured employee leaves this State; and provided, further, that no recovery can be had by the injured employee hereunder in the event he has elected to pursue his remedy and recovers in the state where such injury occurred."

In deference to the verdict and judgment in the trial court, we must conclude that the pertinent facts of this case are as follows:

E. Cason was injured on or about October 29, 1936, in the course of his employment as an employee of J. Lee & E. A. Vilbig, Inc. Such injury occurred in the State of Virginia. Travelers Insurance Company was Vilbig's Texas compensation insurance carrier. It is not claimed that Cason has collected any compensation under the compensation laws of Virginia.

As to Cason's employment, the record, boiled down, shows the following facts: That Vilbig had in its employ E. Cason, defendant in error here; that Cason had been an employee of Vilbig most of the time for several years prior to May, 1936; that in May, 1936, Cason was an employee of Vilbig, working as a common laborer on a road job in Rusk County, Texas; that while Cason was thus employed Vilbig asked him to go to the State of Virginia, where it had another road contract; that Cason agreed to go; that Vilbig gave Cason expense money to make the trip; that Cason went to Virginia and reported for duty; that Cason was given a job in Virginia as dump foreman; that this was not the same kind of work he was doing in Texas; that after working in Virginia a short time Cason was promoted to a better job—that of shovel foreman;...