Nevada Industrial Commission v. Leonard

Decision Date28 May 1937
Docket Number3164
Citation68 P.2d 576,58 Nev. 16
PartiesNEVADA INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION v. LEONARD et al.
CourtNevada Supreme Court

Appeal from Second Judicial District Court, Washoe County; B. F Curler, Judge.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Law by Beulah H Leonard, claimant, and John D. Leonard, her husband, opposed by the Nevada Industrial Commission. From a judgment awarding compensation to the plaintiffs and orders refusing to modify the findings of fact and denying a motion for new trial, the Nevada Industrial Commission appeals.

Judgment and orders affirmed.

George L. Sanford, of Carson City, for appellant.

J. A Sanders and Wm. McKnight, both of Reno, for respondents.

TABER Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the Second judicial district court, Washoe county, department No. 2, and from orders of that court refusing to modify the findings of fact and denying a motion for new trial. Appellant was defendant in the court below. John D. Leonard was joined as a party plaintiff because he was the husband of plaintiff Beulah H. Leonard.

On the morning of April 9, 1934, Mrs. Leonard, a teacher employed in the public school at Gerlach, while walking from her home to the school, fell, breaking her hip. Her claim for compensation was denied by the Industrial Commission, whereupon suit was brought in said district court, which, after trial without a jury, rendered judgment, awarding compensation to plaintiffs in the sum of $5,341.79. It was stipulated at the trial that said amount should be awarded in the event plaintiffs recovered judgment.

The public school buildings at Gerlach are situated on land leased from the Western Pacific Railroad Company. The school grounds are inclosed by a wire fence, in which the only openings are gates affording entrance to and exit from the school grounds. The inclosure around the school buildings is 304 feet long and 159 1/2 feet wide. The school grounds and buildings run in a general northeasterly and southwesterly direction. In entering the grounds, one goes in a northwesterly and southwesterly direction. In speaking of the aforesaid directions, it is the custom of the residents of Gerlach to designate the southeasterly fence of the inclosure as the south, the opposite fence as the north, and the two end fences as east and west, respectively. For the sake of brevity, the latter designations will be used herein. The actual inclosure around the school buildings does not conform to the boundaries described in the lease. The fences are somewhat to the north and west of the corresponding lines of the parcel of land described in the lease. The greater part of the ground described in the lease is included within the fencing actually inclosing the school grounds.

No plat of Gerlach has been filed with the county recorder of Washoe county, and the thoroughfares used by the public are not named. No formal dedication of said thoroughfares has ever been made. The school grounds and buildings are on the north and east outskirts of the town, and there are several thoroughfares approaching them from the south and west. These thoroughfares serve the same practical purposes as would legally platted and dedicated streets. There are no pavements or cement sidewalks at Gerlach.

The home of the Leonards was about a quarter of a mile, or perhaps a little more, in a southwesterly direction from the school--"about ten minutes' walk." At about 8:30 a.m., or perhaps a few minutes before that time, on the morning of said 9th day of April, 1934, Mrs. Leonard left her home for the sole purpose of going to the school house, there to make preparations for teaching her classes and to ring the school bell at 8:45. The teachers were expected to arrive at the school house each morning about 8:30. Along the south fence of the inclosure around the school grounds, and just outside thereof, there is an open road or thoroughfare without sidewalks or pavement. According to Miss Armbruster, this was "the only place to walk or drive cars in approaching the school gate from the west." There were numerous stones in and upon the ground along this thoroughfare, and indeed in that vicinity generally. Most of these stones were wholly embedded in the ground, but many of them projected above the surface.

There were also many stones lying loose on the surface of the ground.

Accompanying Mrs. Leonard were her eleven year old twin daughters, who were pupils in the seventh grade. After Mrs. Leonard and her children had passed the southwest corner of the school grounds, and while they were walking between that point and the entrance gate, the heel on her left shoe slipped on one of the stones and she fell to the ground, breaking her hip. The accident happened less than 10 feet distant from the south fence, and while Mrs. Leonard and her children were walking in the customary and natural place on their way to the entrance gate. There was some testimony that the accident happened within the boundaries of the land leased to the Gerlach school district, as said land is described in the lease hereinbefore mentioned; but in our opinion the trial court was correct in its finding that the accident happened on ground not included within said leased land, nor within the actual wire fence inclosure of the school grounds. As we read the record, the testimony indicates clearly that the accident happened from 10 to 15 feet west of the west boundary of the land as described in the lease. This would place the scene of the accident at a point approximately 40 feet east of the southwest corner of the actual school inclosure, and approximately 125 feet west from the gate, which at that time was the only place used as the entrance to and exit from the school grounds.

It was between 8:35 and 8:40 a. m. when the accident happened. At the time of the accident, and just prior thereto, two boys were on the school grounds, one of them playing with a basketball and the other at the giant stride. Mrs. Leonard testified that she was watching these boys just prior to, and at the time of the accident. "I was watching the conduct of children on the way to school, watching the conduct of the children on the school grounds and going to the school to prepare lessons, as well as watching the school property and children in the school grounds and in the school building." Besides Mrs. Leonard's daughters and the two boys playing on the school grounds, there was a little girl "coming to school, playing around the school house." After the accident, this little girl helped one of Mrs. Leonard's daughters pick up some of the papers dropped when she fell.

On cross-examination, Mrs. Leonard testified that as she was going along near the fence that morning she was watching her step in order to avoid the rocks, "Q. And you were watching your step at the time this accident occurred? A. Yes."

As Mrs. Leonard came along by the fence just before the accident, she saw another teacher, Mr. Lucas, enter the school buildings, and the other teacher, Miss Armbruster, was the first person to come to where she was lying immediately after the accident. In approaching the school grounds, Mrs. Leonard was following her customary pathway, because, as she testified, "it was the least covered with rocks."

Mrs. Leonard was the high school teacher, but besides teaching History. Latin, and English in high school, she also taught History to the fourth, fifth, sixth, and seventh grades in the elementary school.

In leaving her...

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5 cases
  • Jasaitis v. City of Paterson
    • United States
    • New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division
    • 6 Abril 1959
    ...120 N.J.L. 428, 199 A. 906 (Sup.Ct.1938), affirmed 121 N.J.L. 583, 3 A.2d 581 (E. & A.1939); cf. Nevada Industrial Commission v. Leonard, 58 Nev. 16, 68 P.2d 576 (Sup.Ct.1937); Owens v. Southeast Arkansas Transp. Co., 216 Ark. 950, 228 S.W.2d 646 (Sup.Ct.1950); Radermacher v. St. Paul City ......
  • Mgm Mirage v. Cotton
    • United States
    • Nevada Supreme Court
    • 28 Julio 2005
    ...Convenience Stores v. Fantauzzi, 94 Nev. 655, 658, 584 P.2d 689, 691 (1978) (a respondent superior case); Nevada Ind. Com. v. Leonard, 58 Nev. 16, 24, 68 P.2d 576, 579 (1937). 11. Tighe v. Las Vegas Metro. Police Dep't, 110 Nev. 632, 636, 877 P.2d 1032, 1035 (1994); Schepcoff v. SIIS, 109 N......
  • White v. State Indus. Acc. Commission
    • United States
    • Oregon Supreme Court
    • 13 Febrero 1964
    ...two decisions cited by the plaintiff: Logue v. Independent School Dist. No. 33, Ada County, 72 Idaho 44, 21 P.2d 534; Nevada Ind. Com. v. Leonard, 58 Nev. 16, 68 P.2d 576. Statutes of Iadho and Nevada prescribing the duties of public school teachers with regard to the conduct of pupils away......
  • Desert Cab Inc. v. Marino
    • United States
    • Nevada Supreme Court
    • 6 Enero 1992
    ...Molino v. Asher, 95 Nev. 33, 588 P.2d 1033 (1979); Provenzano v. Long, 64 Nev. 412, 183 P.2d 639 (1947); Nevada Ind. Com. v. Leonard, 58 Nev. 16, 68 P.2d 576 (1937), no similar interpretation has been utilized where the issue is the vicarious liability of an employer for the tortious acts o......
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