Konrad v. Anheuser-Busch, Inc.

• Decision Date: 09 January 1958
• Docket Number: I,ANHEUSER-BUSC,No. A--1683,A--1683
• Citation: 137 A.2d 633,48 N.J.Super. 386
• Parties: Albert KONRAD, Petitioner-Respondent, v.nc., Respondent-Appellant.
• Court: New Jersey County Court

Page 386

48 N.J.Super. 386

137 A.2d 633

Albert KONRAD, Petitioner-Respondent, v. ANHEUSER-BUSCH, Inc., Respondent-Appellant.

No. A--1683.

Essex County Court Law Division, New Jersey.

Jan. 9, 1958.

Gockeler & Cortese, Orange, for respondent-appellant (Richard S. Cortese, Orange, of counsel).

Edward J. Abromson, Newark, for petitioner-respondent.

GAULKIN, J.C.C.

Konrad was employed as a warehouseman by Anheauser-Busch, Inc. He was injured while playing on the Anheuser-Busch softball team, and for those injuries he was awarded workmen's compensation. The employer appeals.

Konrad testified that he had been playing on a softball team, sponsored by the employer, which wore uniforms emblazoned 'Budweiser.' More employees wanted to play softball than could be accommodated by that one team, so a committee, which included Konrad, called upon Mr. King, the employer's 'Industrial Relations Manager,' who agreed to the formation of a second team. It was agreed by the committee and King that the uniforms of the new team were to carry the name 'Anheuser-Busch, Inc.'

The employer allotted $500 to be split equally between the two teams, each getting $250 to be used, as far as it would go, to defray the cost of uniforms and to pay other expenses. If there remained a surplus, the players could use it as they saw fit--for example, to go to a ball game. There was no testimony of any agreement by the employer to underwrite and deficit, or to pay any further sums, or to absorb any other costs.

The team was entered in the Newark Industrial League. The men played after hours, on their own time, off the employer's premises, and paid their own transportation to the playing field.

The Deputy properly found the advertising value of the team to the employer to be 'relatively insignificant,' since no spectators are mentioned in the testimony except 'quite a following of employees * * * and the women and the children.' The games were mentioned in the Anheuser-Busch house periodical, and the Newark Industrial League standings were published in the Newark newspapers.

It seems to me, therefore, that the facts in this case are not materially distinguishable from those in Padula v. Royal Plating & Polishing Co., 14 N.J.Super. 603, 82 A.2d 225 (Cty.Ct.1951). In his conclusions the deputy makes no reference to any distinction between the facts in this case and the facts in the Padula case. He appears to have found for Konrad simply because he believed that the Padula case had been overruled by Harrison v. Stanton, 26 N.J.Super. 194, 97 A.2d 687 (App.Div.1953). In this, I think, the Deputy erred.

The Deputy appears to have relied upon some of the general principles stated byJudge Jayne in the Harrison case, but the Deputy omitted others. More important, it must be remembered that general principles are stated by judges with reference to the facts in the cases before them. Cases state principles but decide facts, and it is only the decision on the facts that is a binding precedent. We must constantly repeat to ourselves the axim--as trite as it may be--that general propositions do not decide concrete cases.

Judge Jayne did not mention the Padula opinion, or the cases cited therein by Judge Conlon. Had he intended to criticize or overrule those cases, Judge Jayne would certainly have commented upon them. Judge Conlon was a learned and careful jurist, too little appreciated in his lifetime, and I accept his opinion in the Padula case as a correct statement of the law in 1951; and since I find nothing to indicate that the law has changed since that date upon the facts here involved, I will follow it.

Konrad argues that this case is different than the Padula case because of the conversation he says he had...