Chillstrom v. Trojan Seed Co.

• Citation: 65 N.W.2d 888,242 Minn. 471
• Decision Date: 09 July 1954
• Docket Number: No. 36284,36284
• Parties: CHILLSTROM v. TROJAN SEED CO. et al.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 888

65 N.W.2d 888

242 Minn. 471

CHILLSTROM v. TROJAN SEED CO. et al.

No. 36284.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

July 9, 1954.

Syllabus by the Court

1. Where there is substantial evidence that the death of an employee resulted from an accident which occurred during his hours of work, at a place where his duties required him to be or where he might properly have been in the performance of his duties, the trier of fact may reasonably conclude as a natural inference that the accident arose out of and in the course of the employment.

2. It is not the function of this court to determine whether, from the facts and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom, the decision of the commission is correct or even preferable to another but rather whether the findings have sufficient basis in the evidence and in the inferences to be drawn from the evidence.

3. Evidence examined and Held that whether deceased suffered an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment presented an issue of fact for determination by the Commission.

4. Under the evidence Held that it was within the discretion of the commission to determine that a proper, sufficient, and adequate foundation had been laid to establish that three salesman's daily reports were competent evidence in the case within the meaning of M.S.A. § 176.411 as coming within the exception to the hearsay rule as business entries.

5. The findings of the commission should indicate briefly what material facts in dispute are found to be true and, where the evidence indicates several causative conditions, which condition is found to be the true cause. In view of the ultimate facts found by the commission, Held that its failure to follow this rule was not prejudicial to the relator nor such as to require that the case be remanded for additional findings.

Hansen, Hazen & Lynch, St. Paul, for relators.

S. S. Larson, Minneapolis, Stone, Anthony & MacKenzie, St. Peter, for respondent.

DELL, Chief Justice.

Certiorari to review a decision of the industrial commission affirming the findings and determination of its referee awarding the widow and two dependent children of Edward T. Chillstrom, deceased, compensation benefits and directing the payment of medical, hospital, and burial expense.

On March 25, 1950, Chillstrom died as a result of the toxic reaction of freezing and its effect upon his heart. The freezing occurred between March 16 and 19. The referee found that it occurred because of an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. Relators concede the fact of employment up to the time the truck stopped off the road; the weekly wage of the decedent; that the widow and children were dependents within the meaning of the compensation law; the amount of the medical and burial expense; that the employer had due notice of the claimed accidental death; and that the industrial commision had jurisdiction of the proceeding. The only facts in issue raise the question of whether there was an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of the employment.

On Sunday evening, March 19, 1950, the deceased was discovered lying alongside the rear wheel of his employer's panel truck on a country road near Lake Andes, South Dakota. The truck was off the road on the left-hand side. Three of its wheels were in the ditch and the right rear wheel was just off the shoulder. There was some gasoline in the tank but it would no longer feed to the motor because of the sharp tilt of the truck. Otherwise the truck was in perfect mechanical condition. When found, the deceased was badly frozen and was either unconscious or semiconscious. He was taken to the hospital at Pickstown, South Dakota, where he died.

The deceased had been employed as a seed salesman for the Trojan Seed Company, hereinafter referred to as relator, since the fall of 1949. At the time of his death he was 45 years old. Relator furnished him with a panel truck for use in his sales work and in making deliveries of seed to the farmers. His territory was all of Charles Mix county, South Dakota. Deceased lived at the hotel in Lake Andes.

On Thursday morning, March 16, at the usual time, the deceased left the hotel to go to work. At that time he appeared to be normal and cheerful. Shortly after leaving the hotel he stopped at the Lake Andes municipal liquor store where he purchased two pints of Imperial whiskey which he carried out to the truck; he then drove away. Soon afterward he arrived at the Norris Nelson farm about a mile north of Lake Andes where there was space in a shed for the storage of relator's grain. With the assistance of Robert Nelson, a son of Norris, he loaded some 20 to 26 sacks of grain into the truck and drove away. The Nelsons noticed nothing unusual about his behavior or attitude nor did they observe anything to indicate that he was using intoxicating liquor that morning. The record is silent as to his activities between the time he left the Nelson farm and the time that he arrived at the place on the road where he was found the following Sunday.

From a note written to his 'folks' and from his salesman's daily reports to his employer written on report blanks furnished to him by his employer, it appears that decedent arrived at the place where he was ultimately found early Thursday afternoon, March 16. The salesman's report dated March 16 shows that he made three calls that day and collected $18.92. While the evidence does not disclose what calls were made, there was corroborating evidence in support of the report since it appears from the testimony of several witnesses that there were less sacks of grain on the truck when it was found than had been loaded on the truck at the Nelson farm on the morning of March 16. The salesman's daily reports left by the deceased express the belief that he had a slight stroke which affected his legs and caused him to slide into the ditch; that he had shoveled too hard at the last stop; and that he was unable to leave the truck to get help.

It appears from the evidence that Ernest Payer, a farm boy 15 years old, passed the truck while returning from school Thursday afternoon; that he observed the deceased seated in the cab with his eyes open; that the following morning on his way to school he again passed the truck, at which time it appeared to him that the deceased was sleeping; that on Friday afternoon, in returning from school, he again passed the truck at which time the deceased had his eyes open. The Payer boy testified that on none of these occasions did the deceased give any indication that he needed or wanted assistance, so the boy gave none. Louis Placek, a farmer, passed the truck on Saturday afternoon, March 18. As he approached the truck he noticed the left door open and a man reached out and closed it so that he knew the truck was occupied. However, he could not see into the truck 'because the windows were plastered over.' He did not stop to render any assistance. The evidence of the Payer boy and Placek suggest that the truck was not in the ditch to the extent that it was when the deceased was found on Sunday. There was evidence from the operator of the wrecker service who removed the truck, at the request of the sheriff after the deceased was found on Sunday, that the tire marks showed that an effort had been made to get the truck out of the ditch. On Thursday afternoon, March 16, it was above freezing. When the Payer boy passed the truck that day the road was muddy and slippery. Thereafter the weather changed. It turned to freezing and on Saturday, March 18, it was 'blizzardy weather.'

There is a sharp dispute between the parties as to what the evidence and the reasonable inferences to be drawn therefrom establish. Relator claims that the evidence is insufficient to support a finding that deceased suffered an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment. It claims that when deceased stopped his truck beside the road that he did so for a reason personal to himself; that he thereby departed from his employment and did not thereafter return to it; and that when the freezing occurred resulting in his death he was not within the coverage of the compensation act. In support of its position it introduced evidence that while deceased was employed at Warren, Minnesota, from 1935 to 1938 he used intoxicating liquor to excess, became short in his accounts with his employer, and was discharged because of that conduct; that thereafter in California the same thing occurred with the same result. It also offered evidence from which it could be found that when he was employed by relator he stated that he had missed many opportunities because of drink, had taken the cure for alcohol, and would never use liquor again. His contract of employment with relator was in writing and it provided that he should not use intoxicating liquor while on the job. Relator also offered evidence from which it could be found that deceased had broken his promise and was again drinking to excess; that he had become short in his accounts with the relator and was to have a meeting with Mr. Ralph J. Eichten, its district manager, the afternoon of March 16, the day that his truck stopped at the side of the road; and that the purpose of the meeting was to have an accounting with his employer. Relator contends that deceased must have realized that he again faced the problem of being discharged with the possibility of becoming involved in a criminal prosecution.

In support of its contention that when deceased stopped his truck at the side of the road he did so on a mission personal to himself, relator produced Dr. Gordon R. Kamman, a specialist in nervous and mental diseases, as a witness in its behalf. He had never seen or examined the deceased. He had, however, read a transcript of all the evidence in the case including the depositions. He had also read and considered the note which the deceased wrote to his folks on March...