Bass v. Shreveport-Eldorado Pipe Line Company, Inc.

• Decision Date: 10 April 1926
• Docket Number: 2553
• Citation: Bass v. Shreveport-Eldorado Pipe Line Company, Inc., 4 La.App. 107 (La. App. 1926)
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana
• Parties: BASS v. SHREVEPORT-ELDORADO PIPE LINE COMPANY, INC

4 La.App. 107

BASS v. SHREVEPORT-ELDORADO PIPE LINE COMPANY, INC

No. 2553

Court of Appeals of Louisiana, Second Circuit

April 10, 1926

Appeal from the First Judicial District Court of Louisiana, Parish of Caddo. Hon. J. H. Stephens, Judge.

Action by William Bass against Shreveport-Eldorado Pipe Line Company, Inc., for compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act No. 20 of 1914.

There was judgment for plaintiff and defendant appealed.

Judgment reversed.

Herndon & Herndon, of Shreveport, attorneys for plaintiff, appellee.

Wilkinson Lewis & Wilkinson, of Shreveport, attorneys for defendant appellant.

ODOM J. Reynolds, J., dissents.

OPINION

ODOM J.

Plaintiff brings this suit under the Workmen's Compensation Act (Act No. 20 of 1914 and amendments) to recover 65% of his wages for 100 weeks for the loss of an eye due to an accident which he alleges arose out of and during the course of his employment.

The defense is that the accident which caused plaintiff to lose his eye did not arise out of or in the course of his employment, and that the occupation of "water-boy", in which plaintiff is engaged, is not hazardous under the statute.

There was judgment in favor of the plaintiff as prayed for and defendant appealed.

OPINION

Under the view which we take of this case on another branch, it is not necessary for us to decide whether the plaintiff as a "water-boy" was engaged in a hazardous occupation.

We find in the record the following agreed statement of facts.

"That for several days prior to August 2, 1924, plaintiff had been employed by the Shreveport-Eldorado Pipe Line Company as a water-boy in connection with its bunch of laborers, changing the location of a pipe line in the Broadmoor Subdivision in the town of South Highlands; that on August 2, 1924, the plaintiff was paid off in full at noon and that thereafter he got on a truck owned by the defendant which was coming towards the city of Shreveport, and as said truck approached Centenary College on the Harts Island road into the city of Shreveport, the plaintiff jumped off while the same was in motion, and fell, and that when he did so a splinter stuck in his left eye, as a result of which he entirely lost the sight of his eye; that the Shreveport-Eldorado Pipe Line Company, Incorporated, operates a line of pipe from Smackover, Arkansas, to the city of Shreveport, which line of pipe runs through Broadmoor and was the line of pipe being moved by the force of laborers, to which plaintiff was acting as water-boy."

Elaborating this statement somewhat, we find in the record the testimony of the plaintiff and of two witnesses called on behalf of the defendant, one of whom, Fred Crowder, was defendant's timekeeper and paymaster, and the other, Norman House, the driver of defendant's truck at the time the accident happened.

The testimony shows that defendant was laying an oil pipe line through Broadmoor, a residential section of the city of Shreveport, and for that purpose employed a number of laborers, among them the plaintiff. For about two years plaintiff had been employed by defendant as a ferryman to transport laborers and material across the river, but for about a week he had been employed as a "water-boy" to supply drinking water to the hands engaged in laying the pipe line.

About noon on Saturday, August 2, 1924, Fred Crowder, defendant's timekeeper and paymaster, went out to Broadmoor, where the work was being done, and paid all the men, including plaintiff, the full amount due them up to that time, and plaintiff as well as the other laborers quit work. The work at that place had been finished and the camp was being moved.

The testimony shows that there was no understanding that plaintiff should return to work the following week, and it is certain that he was not to do any more work on that day.

Defendant owned a large motor truck which it used to transport tools and supplies to and from Broadmoor where the pipe line was being laid. This truck was not used for the purpose of carrying laborers to or from their work, nor was there any understanding with the laborers that the employer should furnish them such transportation; but the laborers had been permitted, as a matter of accommodation, to ride the truck on convenient occasions going to or coming from their work.

Plaintiff explains his use of the truck as follows (Testimony, page 8):

"Q. Were you brought home every day in the truck from Broadmoor?

"A. No, sir, not every day.

"Q. How did you get home?

"A. Well, when the truck was not there I walked home, if I didn't happen to catch a ride another way, and when the truck was there and we accidentally happened to catch the truck, we would ride on the truck also."

At page 9 of the testimony plaintiff said:

"Well, of course, their hands, they had to carry them to wherever they were working at."

And he was asked:

"Q. Why do you say that?

"A. Well, the reason I say that, they had been in the habit of carrying them to wherever the job was. Whenever you hires a man to work somewhere, you got to carry them wherever you are working at."

But he does not testify that there was ever any agreement or understanding that he or the other laborers were to be carried by defendant to or from their work. His testimony, as a whole, shows that when the truck happened along he was permitted to get on it and ride, as a matter of accommodation.

Both of the witnesses for defendant testified that the truck was not used for the purpose of transporting the laborers, but say the laborers were permitted to ride to and from their work, provided it was convenient for them to do so, merely as an accommodation to them.

Defendant maintained no living or boarding quarters for its hands. They lived in different sections of the city and its suburbs and got to their work as best they could. However, when one of them could catch the truck and get a ride, he was permitted to do so.

Plaintiff testified that on this particular occasion, after they had quit work and had been paid off, the hands were ordered to load the tools on the truck, which they did, and that then they were ordered to get on the truck, the operator of the truck saying: "All on" or "All aboard" or "Get aboard".

And he said:

"Oh, yes, sir, paid off everybody, and then he said (referring, we suppose, to the driver): 'Get aboard', and we all got aboard of the truck and we all come on just like they had been picking us up all the time."

Both the truck driver and Fred Crowder, the paymaster who was on the truck, say that plaintiff was not ordered to get on the truck nor was anything said with reference thereto.

However, even if any statement was made as to their getting on the truck, we think it was only a suggestion that the laborers who desired to ride had the privilege of doing so.

According to plaintiff's testimony and that of defendant's witnesses, the laborers were not carried to their homes on the truck but were allowed to ride to the point nearest their homes, where they got off and from which point they walked.

When the truck got to where plaintiff wanted to get off in order to walk on to his home, some one announced that he wanted to get off and the driver began to slow down, and while he was doing so and before the truck stopped the plaintiff jumped off and in some way fell, sticking a splinter in his eye, which caused him to lose it.

Under such circumstances we do not think the accident which caused the loss of the plaintiff's eye arose in the course of his employment. His day's work was done and he had ceased to labor. He had been paid off and was on his way home. He was not at or anywhere near the place where he worked and was not on or near defendant's premises. The accident did not occur during the period of his employment.

In a Corpus Juris treatise on workmen's compensation acts, Mr Donald J. Kiser says, ...