Jefferson Ice Co. v. Indus. Comm'n

• Citation: 404 Ill. 290,88 N.E.2d 837
• Decision Date: 22 November 1949
• Docket Number: No. 31097.,31097.
• Parties: JEFFERSON ICE CO. v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

404 Ill. 290

88 N.E.2d 837

JEFFERSON ICE CO.

v.INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 31097.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 22, 1949.

Elizabeth Graf filed an application for adjustment of claim with the Industrial Commission alleging that her husband, Carl Graf, sustained fatal accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of his employment by the Jefferson Ice Company.

The Industrial Commission affirmed the award of the arbitrator who found the issues for claimant and on certiorari, the Superior Court of Cook County, Joseph A. Graber, J., reversed the award of the Commission and claimant filed a writ of error for a further review of the record.

The Supreme Court, Thompson, C. J., reversed the judgment holding that the evidence sustained the finding of the Industrial Commission that employee's injuries originated in course of and out of employment and was compensable.Error to Superior Court, Cook County; Joseph A. Graber, Judge.

Eugene R. Ward, of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Clarence S. Piggott, of Chicago, for defendant in error.

THOMPSON, Chief Justice.

Elizabeth Graf filed an application for adjustment of claim with the Industrial Commission alleging that, on June 16, 1946, her husband, Carl Graf, sustained fatal accidental injuries arising out of and in the course of his employment by the Jefferson Ice Company. An arbitrator found the issues for claimant and entered an award accordingly. Upon review before the Industrial Commission, additional evidence was introduced by the employer and the award of the arbitrator was affirmed. On certiorari, the superior court of Cook County held that the commission's finding that Graf's injuries arose out of and in the course of his employment was contrary to the manifest weight of the evidence, found that the injuries did not arise out of the employment, and reversed and set aside the decision and award of the commission. We have granted claimant's petition for a writ of error for a further review of the record.

The record discloses that Carl Graf had been employed by the Jefferson Ice Company for many years and that, during 1946, he worked only occasionally. On June 15, 1946, his third day of employment by the ice company in 1946, Graf was assigned to the company's plant No. 5, located at 1461 Clybourn Avenue, Chicago, his hours of employment being from 11:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. of the following day. Graf was employed as a stationary engineer and was in charge of the manufacture of ice. The only other employees on duty were an ice puller, who worked under Graf's supervision, and a storehouse attendant. No watchman was on duty on the night in question.

In the performance of his duties as engineer, Graf had to check the ammonia compressors in the engine room and the tank compressors and expansion valves in the tank room. These two rooms are located in separate, but adjoining, buildings and, at the time of the accident, it was necessary to cross a privately-owned stub alley in order to go from one building to the other. The alley opens on Clybourn Avenue. At its far end, about twenty feet beyond the door to the engine room, there is an entrance to the storehouse building where the tank room is located. Between the doors to the respective buildings there is a coin-operated ice-vending machine attached to and built into wall. The ice-vending machine consists of a coin box and an ice chute, the ice chute being located near the storeroom door and the coin box being six or seven feet away in the direction of the door to the engine room. Considerable ice is sold by this method at night and the money in the coin box is not collected by anyone on the night shift.

The duties of the night engineer require him to record the gauges in the engine room at 1:00 A.M. and, again, at 4:00 A.M., and it sometimes becomes necessary for him to make as many as fifteen or twenty trips between the two buildings in a single night. The storehouse attendant, who had never met Graf prior to the night in question and who was still in the employ of the ice company at the time of the hearing before the arbitrator, was the only one of Graf's two fellow employees to testify, it further appearing that the ice puller had left the company about five months after the accident. According to this witness, he saw Graf departing from the storeroom through the door leading into the alley at approximately 4:00 A.M. and followed him out into the alley three or four minutes later. Immediately upon entering the alley, he saw a pool of blood in front of the ice chute and, by following marks where something had been dragged across the alley, he discovered Graf's body about fifteen feet away, located between two transformer poles next to the wall on the opposite side of the alley from the entrance to the engine room. Graf's head was lying in a pool of blood and he had a very slight pulse. After calling the ice puller, the storehouse attendant ran out on Clybourn Avenue, instructed a passing motorist to call the police or an ambulance, and then returned and watched Graf until the police arrived. Graf died the same day as the result of the injuries sustained.

To be compensable under the Workmen's Compensation Act, an accidental injury must both arise out of, and in the course of, the employment. Ill.Rev.Stat.1947, chap. 48, par. 138; Armour & Co. v. Industrial Comm. 397 Ill. 433, 74 N.E.2d 704;Math Igler's Casino, Inc., v. Industrial Comm., 394 Ill. 330, 68 N.E.2d 773. Admittedly, the injuries resulting in Graf's death were received in the course of his employment and, thus, the sole issue presented is whether the injuries sustained arose out of the employment. The Industrial Commission decided that Graf's fatal injuries arose out of his employment. The judgment of the superior court reversed the decision of the...