Mountain Ice Company v. Durkin

• Decision Date: 30 November 1928
• Citation: Mountain Ice Company v. Durkin, 144 A. 6, 6 N.J.Misc. 1111 (N.J. 1928)
• Docket Number: 233
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court
• Parties: MOUNTAIN ICE COMPANY, PROSECUTOR, v. MARGARET DURKIN ET AL., DEFENDANTS

144 A. 6

MOUNTAIN ICE CO.

v. DURKIN et al.

No. 233.

Supreme Court of New Jersey.

Nov. 30, 1928.

Certiorari by the Mountain Ice Company to review a judgment of court of common pleas affirming an award made in the Workmen's Compensation Bureau to Margaret Durkin and others, as the survivors of Martin Durkin, deceased. Affirmed.

Argued October term, 1928, before MINTURN, BLACK, and CAMPBELL, JJ.

Emile Neblo, of Hoboken, for prosecutor.

Coult, Satz & Tomlinson, of Newark, for defendants.

PER CURIAM. This is a workmen's compensation case. The certiorari was allowed to review a judgment of the Essex court of common pleas, affirming an award made in the Workmen's Compensation Bureau to the petitioner, as the widow and children of Martin Durkin, deceased. It is sought to reverse the judgment on the ground that the petitioner's case is entirely barren of any proof of an accident. So, it is argued, there is nothing to indicate that, at the time of the alleged injury, the decedent was doing any particular thing, as a part of his work or otherwise. Not so. The record discloses these facts: The deceased was discovered by Michael Bohen, a fellow worker, about 10:30 a. m., February 27, 1927, in No. 1 storehouse on prosecutor's premises, lying on the floor; he was in an unconscious condition; was carried to the boiler room of the plant, and later to the City Hospital. He was received at the City Hospital almost totally unconscious. There were lacerations on the forehead; no evidence of alcohol or intoxication. Decedent died on March 2, 1927. Dr. Harrison Martland performed an autopsy on the body the following day. He gave the cause of death as follows:

"I found the man died as the result of traumatic cerebral multiple hemorrhages due to a blow or external violence, which he received in the front part of his head where there was a large laceration. He also had a fracture of the pelvis."

The deceased worked as a watchman and fireman for the prosecutor, and at the time immediately preceding the accident, from which death resulted, his hours were from 7 a. m. until 3 p. m. every day except Sunday, when his hours were from 7 a. m. to 7 p. m. He left the plant of the company on Saturday, February 26, 1927, and was to return on Sunday, the following morning, at 7 a. m. Joseph Burness, another night watchman employed by the company, testified that on the night of February 26th he closed all the doors of the plant; that he opened the front door between 6:30 a. m. and 7 a. m. Sunday morning, expecting Durkin to come in some time between 6:30 and 7 o'clock. No. 1 storehouse where Durkin's body was found adjoined another building in the plant, known as the blower room; between the blower room and the storehouse there was a door opening from the storehouse into the blower room....