Kentucky State Racing Commission v. Newton
| Decision Date | 28 June 1968 |
| Citation | 433 S.W.2d 873 |
| Parties | KENTUCKY STATE RACING COMMISSION et al., Appellants, v. Julia NEWTON, Appellee. |
| Court | United States State Supreme Court — District of Kentucky |
James M. Graves and William P. Swain, Boehl, Stopher, Graves & Deindoerfer, Louisville, John B. Breckinridge, Atty. Gen., Frankfort, for appellants.
John D. Darnell, Frankfort, for appellee.
DAVIS, Commissioner.
The appellee, as surviving widow of Guy Polsgrove Newton, made application for adjustment of workmen's compensation claim based upon the accidental death of Newton in a one-car accident on I--64 about 4.3 miles west of Shelbyville. The Board denied the claim. The claimant appealed to the circuit court, and that tribunal remanded the case to the Board with directions that the Board should make specific finding as to (1) the cause of death of the plaintiff's decedent and (2) the scope of employment of plaintiff's decedent at the time of death. The circuit court's order specified that the Board should permit either party to introduce additional evidence, if necessary, in order for the Board to make the specific findings. The employer, Kentucky State Racing Commission, has appealed; and the claimant has undertaken a cross-appeal but has not perfected it as required by CR 74 in that no statement of cross-appeal has been filed.
The decedent was employed by the Kentucky State Racing Commission as a license inspector and assistant veterinarian. On May 31, 1965, decedent was in the performance of his duties at a racing meet held at Miles Park, Louisville. Although the racing program was not concluded until about 5:30 p.m., decedent left Miles Park in his personally owned automobile sometime between 3 and 4 p.m. In an unexplained manner decedent's car ran off I--64 some thirty miles from Miles Park, overturned several times, and ultimately burned. Decedent was dead when the accident was discovered. No evidence was presented to indicate the precise cause of his death.
Newton's immediate superior was Lewis Finley, Jr., who was employed as a steward by the Racing Commission and had an office in Lexington. Finley resided in Georgetown; the decedent resided in Bridgeport in Franklin County. I--64 was an apt route from Miles Park to Bridgeport, Georgetown, or Lexington. There was no direct evidence disclosing Newton's destination.
There was testimony for the claimant that Newton used a clipboard for maintenance of certain papers and reports in the daily working routine. Normally, Newton would deliver his reports to Finley at the race track at the close of the day's racing program. It was shown that on some occasions Newton had delivered the reports to Finley at the Lexington office or at Finley's home in Georgetown. Finley had notified Newton that he would not be at the track on May 31 but that he wanted to receive the reports for that day in time to review them before going to the meet on June 1. A witness for the claimant testified that he saw Newton in his automobile with papers attached to his clipboard shortly In its opinion denying the claim for compensation, the Board recited that the only question before it was whether the decedent was acting in the course of his employment when he was killed. The opinion further stated that neither the purpose of Newton's trip nor his destination at the time had been established. A direct quotation from the Board's opinion is:
before Newton left the race track. Included in Newton's duties was the duty to deliver immediately to Finley the results of any special chemical tests performed upon any of the horses engaged in racing. It was shown that such a special test had been made on May 31. In the charred remains of the wreckage was found a remnant of Newton's clipboard, but any document which it might have contained was destroyed by the fire.
'Actually, no single fact of this record goes further than a presumption that Mr. Newton's acts, at the time of his death,...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Kaycee Coal Co. v. Short
...of his employment; that is, that there was a causal relationship between the accident and the employment. In Kentucky State Racing Commission v. Newton, Ky., 433 S.W.2d 873 (1968), the decedent was killed in an automobile accident after he left one work site and was allegedly on his way to ......
-
Lycoming Shoe Co. v. Woods
...clear and convincing that the board's finding, which was adverse to the claimant, was clearly unreasonable. Cf. Kentucky State Racing Commission v. Newton, Ky., 433 S.W.2d 873. The board's decision must The judgment is reversed with direction to enter a new judgment confirming the board's o......