Free v. Indemnity Ins. Co. of North America
| Decision Date | 01 February 1941 |
| Citation | 145 S.W.2d 1026 |
| Parties | FREE v. INDEMNITY INS. CO. OF NORTH AMERICA. |
| Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Robert L. McReynolds, of Clarksville, for plaintiff.
John S. Daniel, of Clarksville, for defendant.
This case presents a claim for workman's compensation under the laws of Tennessee, Code 1932, § 6851 et seq., and is on appeal from a judgment against petitioner employee by the Circuit Court of Montgomery County. The facts necessary to be stated are as follows:
Defendant Insurance Company was obligated to pay all compensation due under the law to those employed by Hailey Motor Company in its business. Hailey Motor Company operated a garage and motor sales agency in Clarksville and petitioner was employed by it on a commission basis to sell automobiles.
Petitioner resided about one and a fourth miles from this business place. He was not required to do so by the employer, but at the time of his injury he had driven his own car, which he sometimes did in his employment. There was no room for parking cars on the premises of the employer, and this salesman had his car on the street a short distance from the place of business.
Petitioner had been negotiating a sale of a used car to Roy Ezell, who was employed by Montgomery Ward at a store in Clarksville on another street. Petitioner had demonstrated this car to Ezell and named a price. On the day of the accident Ezell came to the office of Hailey Motor Company at noon and declined to pay the price and made a counter offer. This offer was later presented by petitioner to Mr. Hailey, manager of the company, and he declined it. About 5 P. M. that afternoon, petitioner left the office of Hailey Motor Company and started to his parked car, intending to get in it and to drive first to Brothers' Grocery Store, get some groceries for home use, then go by Montgomery Ward's, a short distance from the store, inform Ezell his offer would not be accepted, then go home for supper and come back to the office for work. This was on Saturday, and the closing hour of the motor company was about 9 o'clock. This use of his own car by petitioner when convenient was known and acquiesced in by the employer, if there be any importance in that fact, as insisted upon by petitioner.
As petitioner proceeded toward his parked car with the intentions above stated, walking to the end of the block, then turning across the street on the cross street and reaching a point ten or twelve feet from his car, he slipped on the ice on the sidewalk, fell and fractured his hip. It is on account of this injury that petitioner sues.
The sole question before the court is whether appellant's injury arose out of and in the course of his employment.
Appellant insists that the place of his work was not merely the office of the company, but as an automobile salesman, selling on a commission, was all over Clarksville and adjacent territory in Montgomery County, and that he was at his place of business at the very spot where he met the accident; that appellant's own automobile was his tool or instrument of work.
Appellant insists that the slippery ice on the sidewalk was incident to and grew out of the operation of the employer's business; that he was in the zone of danger incident to his employment; that the failure of his employer to furnish him a parking place on the premises made this enforced parking place equivalent to and was, in the broad sense of the word, on the employer's premises; that it was as if this parking place was the employer's garage on the premises.
He insists that the employer received the benefit of the use of this parked automobile and knowingly allowed appellant to use it on the employer's business; that his work for the day was not through; that he was to use this car in going by Montgomery Ward's place on this deal with Ezell; that his intended stopping on the way to get groceries was incidental.
The facts are not identical, but the application of law is covered by the many reported cases in this state. It would be tiresome to restate those cases here, but they hold that an injury sustained by an employee while he is on his way to or from his work from or to his home and while he is not engaged in any duty connected with his employment is not compensable, because it does not arise out of or in the course of his employment. In those cases where he was departing from or was coming to his work an injury off the premises of the employer or place of work was not compensable unless the injury was so close by or so nearly adjoining that it might be reasonably considered under the circumstances as in effect at the place, or he was using immediate means of access to or from the work so that he was directly and immediately connected with it. Hinton Laundry Co. v. De Lozier, 143 Tenn. 399, 225 S.W. 1037, 16 A.L.R. 1361; Johnson Coffee Co. v. McDonald, 143 Tenn. 505, 510, 226 S.W. 215; Milne v. Sanders, 143 Tenn. 602, 228 S.W. 702; Tennessee Chemical Co. v. Smith, ...
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