Martinez v. Fidel
| Decision Date | 06 February 1956 |
| Docket Number | No. 6009,6009 |
| Citation | 293 P.2d 654,61 N.M. 6,1956 NMSC 23 |
| Parties | Cleotilde MARTINEZ, Appellant, v. John N. FIDEL, Joe N. Fidel and Toufick N. Fidel and Estate of A. S. Nider, d/b/a El Fidel Hotel, Employer; Mountain States Mutual Casualty Co., Insurer, Appellees. |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
Lorenzo A. Chavez, Arturo G. Ortega, Albuquerque, for appellant.
Hannett & Hannett, A. T. Hannett, G. W. Hannett, T. G. Cornish, Albuquerque, for appellees.
This is a Workmen's Compensation case and the question is whether or not the accident and injury arose out of and in the course of employment of claimant by the defendant El Fidel Hotel in Albuquerque, New Mexico. At the close of claimant's case the trial judge directed a verdict in favor of defendant and its insurer, and claimant appeals.
The accident for which compensation is sought happened on January 12, 1954. For seven months prior to this time the claimant had worked for the defendant, El Fidel Hotel, as a chambermaid for which she received $4.00 per seven hour day. Her duties were performed entirely on the hotel premises. The hotel is located on the southwest corner of Fifth Street and Copper Avenue. There is an entrance for guests on each street.
On the south side of the hotel there is a rear door which the employees of the hotel are required to use when entering and leaving the building. There are several ways of approach to this rear entrance. There is no requirement that any of the employees must use any particular approach to the door. On the south side of the hotel there is an alley between it and the Sears Roebuck Company's building which runs east and west. On the east side it runs into Fifth street and on the west into Sixth street. To the west side of the hotel is an open lot used by some other firm for parking vehicles. The Santa Fe Trailways Bus Company occupies the ground floor of the southwest corner of said hotel for a bus depot which abuts the alley in question.
The claimant contends that: 'There is sufficient evidence of record to raise a question of fact on the issue whether or not appellant sustained an injury by an accident arising out of and in the course of her employment.'
Subdivision (l), Section 59-10-12 of 1953 Compilation provides in part, as follows:
'The words 'injuries sustained in extra-hazardous occupations or pursuit,' as used in this act shall include death resulting from injury, and injuries to workmen, as a result of their employment and while at work in or about the premises occupied, used or controlled by the employer, and injuries occurring elsewhere while at work in any place where their employer's business requires their presence and subjects them to extra-hazardous duties incident to the business, but shall not include injuries to any workman occurring while on his way to assume the duties of his employment or after leaving such duties, the approximate cause of which injury is not the employer's negligence.' (Emphasis supplied.)
On the date claimant was injured, she with other employees of the hotel emerged from the building at the entrance and exit required to be used by them, although she, nor any other employee, was required to use any particular route to the street. She had walked east along the alley way and was about to enter Fifth Street when she slipped on ice and fell down. When this happened she had finished her work for the day, her pay had stopped, and her employer's authority over her had ceased, and she was no longer engaged in furthering her employer's interests. She was simply on her way home, on her own time, over a route which she could follow and use according to her own choice and volition. It was optional with her what route she would take after she left the hotel building through the rear door. She could have gone either through (1) the parking lot; (2) the bus station; (3) down the alley to Sixth Street;...
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Carter v. Burn Const. Co., Inc.
...way to work or after leaving are not compensable. Rinehart v. Mossman-Gladden, Inc., 77 N.M. 470, 423 P.2d 991 (1967); Martinez v. Fidel, 61 N.M. 6, 293 P.2d 654 (1956). But there are exceptions to the rule. One such is where the employer agrees to and does furnish transportation to and fro......
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Chavez v. ABF Freight Systems, Inc.
...involve employees who were not traveling, or other fact patterns that are not analogous to this case. ABF relies on Martinez v. Fidel, 61 N.M. 6, 9, 293 P.2d 654, 655 (1956), where an employee left her place of work and fell on ice on a public way, to argue that Jenkins was off duty, on a p......
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Rodriguez v. Permian Drilling Corp..
...company and thus “conferred no benefit” upon the employer and did not qualify for benefits. Id. ¶ 20; see also Martinez v. Fidel, 61 N.M. 6, 9, 293 P.2d 654, 656 (1956) (concluding that slipping on ice while taking one of many possible routes between the office and the employer's parking lo......
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Smith v. City of Albuquerque
...employment. Velkovitz v. Penasco Independent School District. "Out of" refers to the cause or source of the accident. Martinez v. Fidel, 61 N.M. 6, 293 P.2d 654 (1956). The injury must have been caused by a risk to which the injured person was subjected in his employment. The fact that an e......