Hall v. Indus. Comm'n of Ohio, No. 25896.

• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Ohio
• Writing for the Court: WILLIAMS
• Citation: 131 Ohio St. 416,3 N.E.2d 367
• Parties: HALL v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF OHIO.
• Docket Number: No. 25896.
• Decision Date: 08 July 1936

131 Ohio St. 416
3 N.E.2d 367

HALL
v.
INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF OHIO.

No. 25896.

Supreme Court of Ohio.

July 8, 1936.

Appeal from Court of Appeals, Cuyahoga County.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Law by Woodford Hall, employee, opposed by Great Eastern Stages, Incorporated. The Court of Appeals (3 N.E. (2d) 635), reversed a judgment of the court of common pleas for the Industrial Commission, after disallowance of the claim by the commission, and entered final judgment for the employee, and the Commission appeals.-[Editorial Statement.]

Judgment of the Court of Appeals affirmed.

[3 N.E.2d 368]

Syllabus by the Court.

Where an employer, engaged in operating a bus line for the carriage of passengers from within to without the state, has his office and principal place of business within this state and enters into a contract of hire therein with an employee, resident hereof, by which the latter engages as porter in interstate commerce on a bus so operated by the employer, and such employee is injured outside the state while thus employed, the fact that the accident occurs in interstate commerce does not of itself deprive the employee of compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law of this state, Congress not having pre-empted the field by the enactment of legislation relating thereto.

Woodford Hall was denied compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law (Gen.Code, § 1465-37 et seq.) and took an appeal to the court of common pleas of Cuyahoga county. The cause was tried in that court on an agreed statement of facts.

On August 22, 1932, Hall received an injury in the course of and arising out of his employment with the Great Eastern Stages, Inc., of Cleveland, Ohio, as a porter on one of its busses. The injury which resulted directly in a disability for a period in excess of seven days was sustained in the state of Michigan about eighteen miles south of Detroit, while the bus was making a regular trip between Cleveland, Ohio, and Detroit, Mich., in the transportation of passengers. Prior to the injury the employer regularly employed more than three workmen in operating its busses and had made payment into the State Insurance Fund for coverage on its drivers, operators, and porters in its interstate bus business. These payments were computed on two-thirds of a salary of $120 per month as a basis, the distance from Cleveland to Detroit being 180 miles and the portion of the distance in Ohio being two-thirds of the whole distance. The contract of employment was entered into in the city of Cleveland, Ohio, which city was at the time of the accident the established residence of the injured employee. While the salary of Hall was reported to the Industrial Commission in the manner stated as a basis for premiums, he is fact was furnished a room at Detroit for his personal use and was paid $1 per month, which was applied, until paid for, to the purchase of a uniform. His income consisted mainly of tips received from bus passengers. Payments on his salary were by agreement to be made at the Cleveland office of the company. All the operations of the employer consisted of the interstate transportation of passengers through the various states of the Union and the bus upon which the claimant was working when injured was engaged wholly in interstate commerce between Cleveland,

[3 N.E.2d 369]

Ohio, and Detroit, Mich. While engaged as porter on the busses of his employer, the claimant was under the direct control of the driver or operator.

It does not appear from the record whether employer and employee were also employed in intrastate commerce in the state of Ohio.

On trial in the court of common pleas there was a judgment against claimant, Woodford Hall, and in favor of defendant, the Industrial Commission of Ohio.

The Court of Appeals reversed the judgment and entered final judgment for the claimant. 3 N.E.(2d) 635.

This court allowed a motion to certify the record.

John W. Bricker, Atty. Gen., and R. R. Zurmehly, of Columbus, for appellant.

F. E. Stearns, of Cleveland, and W. L. Ricks, of Cincinnati, for appellee.

WILLIAMS, Judge.

Can the claimant recover compensation for injury sustained outside the state of Ohio while engaged in interstate commerce as a porter on his employer's bus?

Article II, section 35, of the Ohio Constitution is the basis for the Workmen's Compensation Law and contemplates that laws shall be passed to carry it into effect. No language is found within the Constitution itself which limits the territorial operation of provisions governing compensation or confines the right thereto to injuries occurring within the state. In fact, the basal section mentioned refers to ‘any employer.’

Statutory enactments disclose that the Workmen's Compensation Law has effect as to extraterritorial injuries within certain limitations.

Section 1465-68, General Code, provides in part as follows: ‘Every employe mentioned in section 1465-61, who is injured, and the dependents of such as are killed in the course of employment, wheresoever such injury has occurred, provided the same was not purposely self-inflicted, on and after January 1st, 1914, shall be entitled to receive, either directly from his employer as provided in section 1465-69, or from the state...