Beam v. State Workmen's Compensation Fund
| Citation | 261 S.C. 327,200 S.E.2d 83 |
| Decision Date | 24 October 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 19706,19706 |
| Parties | Daisy Wood BEAM, Deceased, et al., Respondents, v. STATE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION FUND, Insurance Carrier for Cherokee County School District One, Appellant. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court of South Carolina |
Atty. Gen. Daniel R. McLeod and Asst. Atty. Gen. G. W. Thomason, Columbia, for appellant.
Stuart H. Hall, Gaffney, for respondents.
This case arose under the South Carolina Workmen's Compensation Act, Section 72--1 et seq., Code of 1962. It involves a claim for compensation arising out of the death of Daisy Wood Beam, who left surviving her as next of kin a brother, George Wood, a respondent herein.
There is also involved a claim for compensation arising out of the death of Nancy Beam Youngblood, who left surviving her a son, David W. Youngblood, a respondent herein.
The respondents allege that Daisy Wood Beam and Nancy Beam Youngblood were employed as school teachers by Cherokee County School District One in Gaffney, South Carolina, and that, on March 25, 1971, they were en route from Gaffney to Columbia, South Carolina, to attend a meeting of the South Carolina Education Association to be held on the next day. A blinding snow storm began that afternoon and as the automobile in which they were riding proceeded south on Highway No. 121, in Newberry County, South Carolina, it was struck head-on by a tractor-trailer truck, resulting in the deaths of the two school teachers. It is asserted that their deaths resulted from an accident arising out of and in the course of their employment. The State Workmen's Compensation Fund, the insurance carrier for Cherokee County School District One, the appellant herein, denied this claim.
A hearing was held before a Single Commissioner on January 20, 1972. This Commissioner, on March 13, 1972, filed his decision holding that the deaths of the two school teachers did arise out of and in the course of their employment. Based upon this finding of fact, compensation for the deaths was awarded.
The appellant prosecuted an appeal to the Full Commission and by appropriate exceptions challenged the correctness of the findings of fact made by the Single Commissioner. The Commission unanimously affirmed the decision made by the Single Commissioner. Thereafter, an appeal was duly taken by the appellant to the Court of Common Pleas for Cherockee County and was heard by The Honorable George T. Gregory, Jr., Presiding Judge, who issued his order affirming the decision of the Commission. Timely appeal to this Court followed.
The exceptions of the appellant raise the question of whether the deaths of Daisy Wood Beam and Nancy Beam Youngblood were the result of an accident which arose out of and in the course of their employment.
Death arises 'in the course of employment' within the Workmen's Compensation Act when it occurs within the period of employment at a place where the employee reasonable may be in the performance of his duties and while fulfilling those duties or engaged in something incidental thereto. An accident 'arises out of the employment' when the employment is a contributing proximate cause. These conditions must concur before the Act can apply. Sola v. Sunny Slope Farms, 244 S.C. 6, 135 S.E.2d 321.
The only testimony presented on the issues here involved was that on the superintendent of Cherokee County School District One. It appears from his testimony that the two school teachers entered into a written contract of employment with the district and by the terms thereof obligated themselves to conform to the school policies of the district; that at the time the contracts were entered into, he pointed out that he expected the teachers to involve themselves professionally and to participate in all of the professional organizations, which included the activities of the South Carolina Education Association; that teachers of the district were expected to attend the meetings of the Association, one of the reasons being that the district paid...
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