Cerrato v. Mcgeorge Contracting Co.

• Decision Date: 06 March 1944
• Docket Number: 4-7286
• Parties: Cerrato v. McGeorge Contracting Company
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

178 S.W.2d 247

206 Ark. 1045

Cerrato v. McGeorge Contracting Company

No. 4-7286

Supreme Court of Arkansas

March 6, 1944

Appeal from Saline Circuit Court; Thomas E. Toler, Judge.

Affirmed.

Bailey & Thompson, for appellant.

Buzbee Harrison & Wright, for appellee.

OPINION

Smith J.

The widow of Joe Cerrato filed a petition with the Workmen's Compensation Commission asking compensation under the law for her husband's death. The claim was disallowed by the commission, and that finding was affirmed on the appeal to the circuit court, from which judgment is this appeal. There are no substantial conflicts in the testimony, from which the commission prepared a statement of the case, with the finding of facts thereon to the following effect.

Cerrato was killed on August 22, 1942, when he accidentally came in contact with a live electric wire lying across a highway known as the Bryant-Bauxite road, which road, at that time, was being widened and surfaced by Gregory-Hogan Company as contractors. Other contractors were engaged in the performance of various contracts in connection with the construction and operation of the Hurricane Creek Alumina Plant near Bauxite. Cerrato was employed by McGeorge Contracting Company, one of these contractors engaged in a work that required the use of pit gravel inside the plant area, which is entirely inclosed by a fence. Cerrato's duties were to haul gravel in his personally owned truck, from a gravel pit several miles away, for the use of the McGeorge Contracting Company. He worked under the direction of A. T. Hemphill, superintendent of the McGeorge Contracting Company, who maintained the company office near the highway where the work was in progress. Cerrato and other employees were required to report to this office each morning before beginning work, and to check out from this office at the completion of the day's work. On the day of his death, Cerrato, and other employees, reported for work at the usual time, but all the haulers were dismissed at 11:00 a. m., on account of weather conditions.

Having some free time on hand, Cerrato and two other fellow-employees drove one of the trucks to Benton, five miles away, to see if new tires could be purchased for Cerrato's truck. On returning from this mission, which took about two hours, to the site of the construction work, they parked Cerrato's truck and changed to a truck operated by Vernon Stroud, whose employment was similar to that of Cerrato. These two employees, and another, all resided in North Little Rock, and they alternated in taking the party to and from their homes to their place of work, using one of the trucks for that purpose and parking the other two trucks near the place of employment.

These employees left their place of work in Stroud's truck and drove northward along the Bryant-Bauxite road. They approached a point, some 800 feet south of the junction of this road with highway 70, when they came upon one or more cars stuck in the mud, and in attempting to dislodge these other cars, the truck in which they were riding also became stuck. The passengers in Stroud's truck alighted to push the truck out of the mud, and while so engaged Cerrato came in contact with an electric wire, which had been strung to a pole on the...