Fox v. Cramerton Mills
| Decision Date | 21 November 1945 |
| Docket Number | 524 |
| Citation | 35 S.E.2d 869,225 N.C. 580 |
| Parties | FOX et al. v. CRAMERTON MILLS, Inc., et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
Claim for compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act for the death of Charles Edward Fox employee of defendant Cramerton Mills, Inc. It was claimed that his death was by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment by the defendant Mills.
The material facts as found by the hearing commissioner and approved and affirmed by the full commission on review were these:
Charles Edward Fox was a young man 16 years of age, and at the time of his death had only been working a few weeks at defendant's mill, where he was employed as a doffer. The deceased and other employees in the mill had formed a custom which was known to the employer, of temporarily leaving their place of employment in the mill while their machines were running and going down to the ground floor in the yard for the purpose of smoking--not being allowed to smoke in the building. This custom and habit had been in vogue for some time. On August 30, 1943, deceased went to work at 3 p. m. His job was on the third floor. About 7:30 p. m. deceased and a fellow employee maned Gibson decided they wished to smoke. So they walked down to the second floor and entered the freight elevator at the same time with the head doffer Goodson, who was over Fox and Gibson. Goodson had a box of waste he was carrying out, and the three went down by the elevator to a ramp between the sub-basement and first floor where Goodson got off on to the ramp, outside the building, for the purpose of carrying the waste to the waste house, leaving Fox and Gibson on the elevator. 'At that time when Goodson, the head doffer over Gibson and Fox, was leaving the elevator he told deceased and Gibson to bring the elevator back to that landing and pick him up and take him back upstairs. ' Fox and Gibson proceeded to take the elevator on to the ground floor where they got off to go into the yard and smoke, according to the custom and habit of the employees, but just as they reached the ground Fox realized the elevator was going back up, and that, unless controlled, it would not stop to pick up Goodson, as Goodson had directed them to do. As the freight elevator was slow moving, Fox ran up an iron ladder on the outside of the building to the ramp where the head doffer had gotten off to go to the waste house, and as the elevator passed this door, Fox attempted to stop the elevator so as to make it available for Goodson to return to the upper part of the building, as Goodson had directed, and in doing so Fox was caught in the shaft between the side door of the elevator and the wall, and was killed.
The commission found that the injury described, resulting in the death of the deceased, arose out of and in the course of his employment; that the injury occurred on the premises while the deceased was then employed and in the course of his employment; that it arose out of the employment because deceased was following a custom of the mill of leaving the immediate place of work to go on the ground floor on the outside of the mill building for the purpose of smoking; and that deceased was following the instructions of a superior in attempting to stop the elevator at the designated point in order that Goodson, the head doffer, might use the elevator as a means of returning to the third floor, for the performance of his duties.
Award to the next of kin of deceased for compensation and funeral expenses was directed to issue. Defendant Cramerton Mills and its insurance carrier, Liberty Mutual Ins. Co., appealed to the superior court, and in doing so filed exceptions to the findings of fact, conclusions of law, and award of Industrial Commission, for that (a) the findings of fact were not supported by competent evidence, (b) the conclusions of law were not supported by evidence, and (c) not supported by proper and sufficient findings of fact.
In the superior court the Judge presiding 'after due consideration of the entire record' and argument of counsel, adjudged that 'the award of the North Carolina Industrial Commission be in all respects affirmed' and entered judgment for an award in the amount as fixed by the Commission.
The record further recites, 'The defendants object to the foregoing judgment, except to same, and appeal to the Supreme Court.'
J. Burke Gray, of Murphy, and J. L. Hamme, of Gastonia, for plaintiffs-appellees.
Jones & Smathers, of Charlotte, for defendants-appellants.
Both by statute and the uniform decisions of this Court it is declared that the findings of fact by the Industrial Commission, on a claim properly constituted under the Workmen's Compensation Act, are conclusive on appeal both in ...
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