Barres v. Watterson Hotel Co.

• Decision Date: 17 October 1922
• Citation: 196 Ky. 100,244 S.W. 308
• Parties: BARRES v. WATTERSON HOTEL CO.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

244 S.W. 308

196 Ky. 100

BARRES v. WATTERSON HOTEL CO.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

October 17, 1922

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jefferson County, Common Pleas Branch First Division.

Action by Edith A. Barres against the Watterson Hotel Company. From a judgment dismissing the petition, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Morton K. Yonts and O'Doherty & Yonts, all of Louisville, for appellant.

Fred Forcht, of Louisville, for appellee.

SAMPSON J.

Appellant Edith A. Barres, was a regularly employed maid at the Watterson Hotel in Louisville. At the close of the day's work she removed her apron and put on her street dress for the purpose of leaving the hotel on her way home. She was on one of the upper floors of the hotel. She entered an elevator operated by the hotel for carrying its employés and other needs of the establishment, and had started for the ground floor. In transit a large piece of metal fell from the top of the elevator shaft and struck appellant on the head inflicting a severe injury, which caused paralysis of her body. She brought this action against the hotel company to recover $50,000 damages, alleging negligence on the part of the company. The company answered, and denied the averments of negligence. In the second paragraph it pleaded contributory negligence on the part of appellant, and in the third paragraph it pleaded that both it and appellant had accepted the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Law (Ky. St. §§ 4880-4987), and that the hotel company was, at the time of the injury as well as before and since, operating under the provisions of said act; that appellant had in writing accepted the provisions of the act, and, having done so, was not entitled to maintain this action for damages.

Appellant filed a general demurrer to the third paragraph of the answer, but the court overruled the demurrer. Appellant declining to plead further, her petition was dismissed, and she appeals.

The first section of the Workmen's Compensation Act, now section 4880, Kentucky Statutes, in part reads:

"This act shall apply to all employers having three or more employés regularly engaged in the same occupation or business, and to their employés, except that it shall not apply to domestic employment, agriculture," etc. "It shall affect the liability of the employers subject thereto and their employés for personal injuries sustained by the employé by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. ***"

It will thus be seen, that the act specifically exempts from its operation "domestic employment," and it is the contention of appellant: (1) That she was engaged in such employment at the time of her injury, and that the demurrer should for that reason have been sustained to the third paragraph of the answer; (2) as she had finished her day's work and had resumed her street attire and the injury was received after her labors for the day had ended, the accident was not one arising out of and in the course of her employment; (3) she insists that, even if her employment had not ceased when she stepped upon the elevator, she then became a passenger entitled to all the protection of such persons in elevators, and that her employment was in abeyance for the time being.

1. If appellant was a domestic servant, engaged in domestic employment at the time of her injury within the meaning of the act, then the demurrer should have been sustained to the answer. But was she such servant? She was, to be sure engaged in an employment or occupation similar in many of its aspects to that generally pursued by domestics in the home. We apprehend, however, that the business of running a hotel is industrial in its nature, and not domestic in the general meaning of that word. A large hotel like the Watterson employs a great number of persons under one management, all forces being directed to the accomplishment of one purpose--the accommodation of the traveling public by supplying rooms and entertainment. This is a business. It is not a mere incident to a business. The home is an institution, not an industry. In such an institution the services of a domestic is a mere incident. A hotel is a business or industrial undertaking where persons...