American Mut. Liability Ins. Co. v. Casey, 35545

• Decision Date: 18 March 1955
• Docket Number: No. 35545,No. 2,35545,2
• Citation: 86 S.E.2d 697,91 Ga.App. 694
• Parties: AMERICAN MUTUAL LIABILITY INSURANCE COMPANY et al. v. Alice F. CASEY
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 697

86 S.E.2d 697

91 Ga.App. 694

AMERICAN MUTUAL LIABILITY INSURANCE COMPANY et al. v. Alice F. CASEY.

No. 35545.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

March 18, 1955.

Robert G. Young, Marshall, Greene & Neely, Atlanta, for plaintiffs in error.

Parker, Clary & Kent, J. Milton Grubbs, Jr., Rome, for defendant in error.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court

CARLISLE, Judge.

1. Although, in workmen's compensation cases, the burden of proof is on the claimant to show that the injury to the employee arose both out of and in the course of his employment, Aetna Casualty & Surety Co. v. Watson, 91 Ga.App. 657, 86 S.E.2d 656, and citations, a finding by the State Board of Workmen's Compensation that the claimant has carried such burden of proof is conclusive upon the courts of this State if there is any evidence to support such finding. Montgomery v. Maryland Casualty Co., 169 Ga. 746, 151 S.E. 363, and citations.

2. Where, on an appeal from a judgment of a superior court affirming an award of the State Board of Workmen's Compensation, granting compensation to the claimant for the death of her husband it appears that the hearing director of the State Board of Workmen's Compensation was authorized to find that the employee husband was the field superintendent of the employer, Asbestos Erectors, Inc., and in general charge of a construction job at Plant Hammond near Rome, Georgia, that the employer contracted for the asbestos work on various jobs throughout the country, and the home office was maintained in New Jersey, that no office was maintained at the Plant Hammond, the construction site, but the field superintendent prepared his daily and weekly reports to be mailed to the home office and studied the blueprints for the job at home at night, that the field superintendent had no definitely fixed hours of work, but was in charge of the whole operation and worked five days a week and at all other times whenever it became necessary in getting the job completed, that he was on a regular salary and did not work by the hour, that he used his own personal automobile in going to and from his home to the job site and used it in making trips to look after the company's business, such as checking on shipments of materials and in securing parts for machinery on the job whenever necessary, that he was on twenty-four hour call, that, on the day on which he was killed when his automobile turned over, he had let the other employees go and he was on the highway between the job site and Rome, when he stopped his automobile and stopped the automobile of his assistant to inquire of him the amount of material that had been used that day on the job, that the assistant gave him this information, and he started on toward Rome ahead of his assistant's automobile and had gone...