Employers Ins. Co. of Ala. v. Bass

• Decision Date: 09 March 1950
• Docket Number: No. 32791,No. 1,32791,1
• Citation: 58 S.E.2d 516,81 Ga.App. 306
• Parties: EMPLOYERS INS. CO. OF ALABAMA et al. v. BASS
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 516

58 S.E.2d 516

81 Ga.App. 306

EMPLOYERS INS. CO. OF ALABAMA et al. v. BASS.

No. 32791.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 1.

March 9, 1950.

Adhered to on Rehearing March 30, 1950.

C. Baxter Jones, Jr., Atlanta, Powell, Goldstein, Frazer & Murphy, Atlanta, for plaintiffs in error.

T. Elton Drake, Atlanta, Fraser & Irwin, Atlanta, for defendant in error.

Syllabus Opinion by the Court.

WORRILL, Judge.

1. 'An award made upon review by all the directors of the State Board of Workmen's Compensation, affirming an award by a single director upon issues of fact, is conclusive as to those issues, if there is any evidence to sustain it; and, in the absence of fraud, such award cannot be set aside. See Webb v. General Accident, Fire & Insurance Co., 72 Ga.App. 127, 33 S.E.2d 273, and citations.' Reeves v. Royal Indemnity Co., 73 Ga.App. 2, 35 S.E.2d 473. See also Davis v. American Mutual Liab. Ins. Co., 72 Ga.App. 783(1), 35 S.E.2d 203, and Armour & Co. v. Price, 73 Ga.App. 676(1), 37 S.E.2d 634. Except in plain and indisputable cases the question of whether one is an employee within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act, Code, § 114-101 et seq., and whether an injury received by such person was received in the course of the employment, are questions of fact for decision by the board, and a finding in regard to such questions by the board is reviewable by the courts subject to the rules of law just stated.

2. 'An injury arises 'in the course of employment,' within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act, when it occurs within the period of the employment, at a place where the employee reasonably may be in the performance of his duties, and while he is fulfilling those duties or engaged in doing something incidental thereto.' New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. Sumrell, 30 Ga.App. 682(2), 118 S.E. 786. 'Preparations by the employee at the place of employment, to begin the work for which he is employed, is a part of the duties of the employment.' Maryland Casualty Co. v. Sanders, 49 Ga.App. 600(2), 176 S.E. 104, 105, and citations reversed by Supreme Court on other grounds, 182 Ga. 594, 186 S.E. 693; Williams v. American Mutual Liability Ins. Co., 72 Ga.App. 205, 206, 33 S.E.2d 451.

3. Where the evidence authorized a finding by the director and by the board upon review, that the deceased employee, the 48-year-old husband of the claimant, went to work for the employer as a carpenter on a Friday, and worked on that day in a building which was a part of an extensive apartment house building project of the employer; that the employee, as was the custom, furnished his own carpenter's tools which he kept and carried in a tool box weighing between 35 and 80 pounds; that on leaving work that day he carried his tools away from the project with him, though the employer furnished a locked storage box in which he was free to leave his tools overnight; that on the following Monday morning the employee returned to the employer's field office on the project premises to ascertain whether or not they would work that day, as it was raining that morning; that the employer's carpenter foreman, at about 7:45 a. m. told the employee to report back to building No. 51 where he had worked the previous Friday, which building was situated some 380 yards from the field office; that the employee picked up his tool box and walked 300 yards carrying it, set the tool box down, and fell dead at a place on the employer's premises but some 80 yards from the location where he had been instructed by the foreman to go to work; that a minute or so thereafter the employer's warning whistle or siren, which customarily sounded at five minutes of eight each morning, was sounded; that the only requirement of the employees by the employer was that the employees be at their place of work ready to go to work at 8 a. m. when the second whistle or siren was sounded, conceding, as does the plaintiff in error, that the employee suffered an accidental injury which would have been compensable if it occurred in the course of the employment, such facts, under the foregoing rules of law, authorized a finding by the director and by the board that the employee died as a result of an accidental injury received in the course of his employment, notwithstanding the fact that he had...