MacDonald v. Riverside & Fort Lee Ferry Co.

• Decision Date: 11 December 1941
• Citation: 23 A.2d 405,20 N.J.Misc. 19
• Parties: MacDONALD v. RIVERSIDE & FORT LEE FERRY CO.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

23 A.2d 405

20 N.J.Misc. 19

MacDONALD

v. RIVERSIDE & FORT LEE FERRY CO.

New Jersey Department of Labor—Workmen's Compensation Bureau.

Dec. 11, 1941.

On Petition for Compensation.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Leslie MacDonald, petitioner, for the death of John Muir, deceased employee, opposed by the Riverside and Fort Lee Ferry Company, employer.

Judgment final ordered to be entered in favor of petitioner and against employer.

Collins & Corbin, of Jersey City (Patrick F. McDevitt, of Jersey City, of counsel), for petitioner.

Henry H. Fryling, of Newark (William F. Vosseller, of Newark, of counsel), for respondent.

STAHL, Deputy Commissioner.

Upon carefully considering the entire evidence in this case, I find and determine as follows:

That the petitioner's decedent, John Muir, was regularly employed by the respondent as a dock tender at its Edgewater ferry house, Edgewater, New Jersey, and that the said employment was subject to article II of the Workmen's Compensation Act, N.J.S.A. 34:15-7 et seq. It has been definitely adjudicated that the locality test governs in determining whether the Maritime law or the Workmen's Compensation law controls, and that when it appears that an accident occurred on land, and not upon a ship, and the state has provided a scheme of compensation for the injury, exclusive of all other legal remedy against the employer, admiralty will not impose its jurisdiction, but will remit the party injured to such exclusive remedy. See State v. W. C. Dawson & Co., 122 Wash. 572, 211 P. 724, 212 P. 1059, 31 A.L.R. 518.

That on August 29th, 1939, the decedent met with an accident, arising out of and in the course of his employment, when he was struck by a revolving mooring wheel, throwing him backwards and causing him to strike his head upon falling to the floor, followed by unconsciousness; that during his transportation by ambulance to the Englewood Hospital he regained his composure and consciousness sufficiently long enough to tell one, Stephen Bolcik, a police officer who was accompanying him to the hospital, that he, the decedent had been struck by the wheel and was injured in the fall; and that under the well established rule the above utterances of the decedent form part of the res gestae. See Hannaford v. Central Railroad Company of New Jersey, 115 N.J.L. 573, 181 A. 306; Slayback Van Order Co. v. Eiben, 115 N.J.L. 17, 177 A. 671; Demeter v. Rosenberg, 114 N.J.L. 55, 175 A. 621.

That the...