Bloomington v. Indus. Bd.

• Decision Date: 21 December 1916
• Docket Number: No. 10918.,10918.
• Citation: 276 Ill. 239,114 N.E. 517
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Parties: BLOOMINGTON, D. & C. R. CO. v. INDUSTRIAL BOARD et al.

276 Ill. 239

114 N.E. 517

BLOOMINGTON, D. & C. R. CO.

v.INDUSTRIAL BOARD et al.

No. 10918.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 21, 1916.

Error to Circuit Court, Macon County; William K. Whitfield, Judge.

Proceedings by John E. Patterson, administrator, to obtain compensation for the death of his intestate, Stavros Geanules, while employed by the Bloomington, Decatur & Champaign Railroad Company. Compensation was awarded by the Industrial Board, and the award quashed by the circuit court, and the claimant brings error. Affirmed.

Redmon, Hogan & Redmon, of Decatur, for plaintiff in error.

Charles C. Le Forgee and Thomas W. Samuels, both of Decatur, and George W. Black, of Peoria, for defendant in error.

DUNN, J.

This writ of error is prosecuted to reverse a judgment of the circuit court of Macon county quashing a decision of the Industrial Board awarding compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act (Laws 1913, p. 335), at the rate of $5 per week for 416 weeks, to the plaintiff in error for the death of his intestate, Stavros Geanules, who was killed on April 17, 1914, by an interurban car of the defendant in error. The court found that the deceased was not at the time of his injury in the employ of the reilroad company, and that the accident resulting in his death did not arise out of or in the course of his employment. If the record of the Industrial Board contains evidence fairly tending to show that the deceased was in the employ of the railroad company, and that the accident arose out of and in the course of his employment, the award should have been sustained, otherwise it was properly quashed.

The testimony showed that Harry Spinos, a Greek, who had been in this country about 3 1/2 years, working for railroad companies, and who had worked for the Bloomington, Decatur & Champaign Railroad Company the previous year, on April 16, 1914, in response to a request from Edward Eagan, the company's roadmaster, went from Decatur to Danville for the purpose of securing employment for himself and some other Greeks, of whom the deceased was one. Early the next morning he saw Eagan, who told him that he could use the men and gave him a pass to return to Decatur and another pass for himself and ten men from Decatur to Monticello. Eagan told him that he had a bunk car between Bement and Monticello, at a place called Clark Siding, and he would give the men $1.65 a day. He told Spinos to bring the men down in the regular car and go and live in the bunk car. This was on Friday, and the men were to go to work on Saturday or Monday. Spinos returned to Decatur and told the deceased the company wanted him to go to work and would give him $1.65 a day and a bunkhouse to live in. Spinos left...