Lancaster v. Celanese Corp. of America

• Decision Date: 08 December 1932
• Docket Number: 33.
• Citation: 163 A. 209,163 Md. 516
• Parties: LANCASTER v. CELANESE CORPORATION OF AMERICA ET AL.
• Court: Maryland Court of Appeals

163 A. 209

163 Md. 516

LANCASTER v. CELANESE CORPORATION OF AMERICA ET AL.

No. 33.

Court of Appeals of Maryland

December 8, 1932

Appeal from Circuit Court, Allegany County; Frank G. Wagaman, Judge.

Proceeding by Margaret Lancaster to recover compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act for the death of Henry E Lancaster, employee, opposed by the Celanese Corporation of America, employer, and the Maryland Casualty Company insurer. From a judgment for the employer and insurer on claimant's appeal from an order of the State Industrial Accident Commission rejecting the claim, claimant appeals.

Affirmed.

Argued before BOND, C.J., and PATTISON, URNER, ADKINS, OFFUTT DIGGES, PARKE, and SLOAN, JJ.

William A. Huster and George W. Legge, Jr., both of Cumberland, for appellant.

F Brooke Whiting, of Cumberland, and G. Randolph Aiken, of Baltimore, for appellees.

SLOAN J.

There was one issue submitted at the trial of the appeal before the circuit court for Allegany county, and that was whether the death of Henry E. Lancaster was the result of an accidental injury which arose out of and in the course of his employment with the Celanese Corporation of America, on which the jury was directed to answer "No." The claim had been rejected by the State Accident Commission, and appealed by the employee's widow and dependent, who appeals to this court.

Henry E. Lancaster, who resided at Eckhart Mines in Allegany county, had worked for some time as a carpenter at the works of the Celanese Corporation of America about four miles westward of Cumberland on the Cresaptown road. On the afternoon of September 3, 1931, he had checked out at the end of the day's work at 4:32 o'clock, and walked to the gate and through it to the state road to take, as was his custom, a bus of the Cumberland & Westernport Transit Company to his home. Apparently he was headed for the opposite side of the road, and just as he was about to step on the paved portion of the road he walked into and put his head through the window of a passing automobile, and had his throat so badly cut that he died a few minutes after being taken to a hospital at Cumberland.

The evidence is that the conveyance which the employee was about to board, and in which he habitually rode to and from work was that of a common carrier, not provided by the employer and to which the employee paid his fare. At the time of the accident, there were about three thousand persons employed at the Celanese works, and the deceased was one of about a thousand quitting his shift. There was some hurry and confusion, for which in some unexplained way the appellant argued that the employer might be responsible, though we are at a loss to see what duty the employer...