S. Sur. Co. v. Galloway

• Citation: 213 P. 850,89 Okla. 45,1923 OK 161
• Decision Date: 13 March 1923
• Docket Number: Case Number: 12220
• Parties: SOUTHERN SURETY CO. et al. v. GALLOWAY et al.
• Court: Oklahoma Supreme Court

1923 OK 161

213 P. 850

89 Okla. 45

SOUTHERN SURETY CO. et al. v. GALLOWAY et al.

Case Number: 12220

Supreme Court of Oklahoma

Decided: March 13, 1923

Syllabus

¶0 1. Master and Servant -- Workmen's Compensation--"Injury Arising Out of Employment."

An injury does not arise out of the employment within the meaning of section 7285, Comp. Stats. 1921, unless it results from a risk reasonably incident to the employment and unless there is apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration of all the circumstances, a causal connection between conditions under which the work is required to be performed and the resulting injury.

2. Same--Injury Noncompensable.

Where an employe is engaged in driving a team in constructing street paving and drives the team on to the parking under the direction of the foreman, and then leaves his team and goes diagonally across the street to a bread wagon to get something for his lunch, and, while returning from the bread wagon to the place where he had left his team, is struck by an automobile driven by a person not employed by the construction company, the accident does not arise out of the employment and is not compensable under the Workmen's Compensation Act.

Error from Industrial Commission.

Action by the Southern Surety Company and another to reverse award of workman's compensation to Smith M. Galloway. Reversed and remanded, with directions.

Stanard & Ennis, for petitioners.

Geo. F. Short, Atty. Gen., Kathryn Van Leuven, Asst. Atty. Gen., and Omer R. Young, for respondents.

COCHRAN, J.

¶1 This action was commenced in this court to review the decision of the State Industrial Commission wherein respondent was allowed compensation for a broken leg. The agreed facts show that respondent was employed by the A. R. Young Construction Company, one of the petitioners, as a laborer, and on the date of the injury was working on a grading plow. The A. R. Young Construction Company was engaged in constructing paving on G. street. About 11 o'clock in the morning, the foreman of the company ordered respondent to drive his team, with grading plow attached, up on the parking west of that part of G street which was being improved, where the plow would be out of the street and out of the way of the wheel scraper. In compliance with this instruction, the respondent drove his team, with plow attached, to the place designated. About that time a bread wagon drove up on First street and stopped near the intersection of G street and First street, and respondent left his team and plow and went diagonally across G street to the bread wagon to get something for his lunch, and while returning from the bread wagon and while still in First street, he was struck by an automobile driven by John Smith and received the injury for which he was allowed compensation by the Industrial Commission. Smith was not employed by the Young Construction Company and was not connected with such company in any way.

¶2 The question presented for determination is whether this injury is one arising "out of and in the course of his employment" within the meaning of section 7285, Comp. Stat. 1921. In the case of Willis v. State Industrial Commission, 78 Okla. 216, 190 P. 92, this court held that where an employe, during an interval in his work, was warming himself by a fire on the premises of the employer and was injured by the explosion of a piece of dynamite containing a cap brought there by a fellow employe, the injury arose out of and in the course of his employment, and in the opinion we find the following quotation from Honnold on Workmen's Compensation, vol. 1, sec. 101:

"In other words, even though the injury occurred 'in the course of' the employment, if it did not arise 'out of the employment,' there can be no recovery. Yet, in the words of an English jurist: 'If you find that the accident arose in the course of the employment, you may have gone a certain way towards finding that it arose out of the employment, but you have not gone the whole way. The words out of point to the origin and cause of the accident or injury; the words 'in the course of' to the time, place, and circumstances under which the accident or injury takes place. The former words are descriptive of the character or quality of the accident; the latter words relate to the circumstances under which an accident of that character or quality takes place. The character or quality of the accident as conveyed by the words 'out of' involves the idea that the accident is in some sense due to the employment. It must result from a risk reasonably incident to the employment."

¶3 In the case of Superior Smokeless Coal & Mining Co. v. Hise and State Industrial Commission, No. 12970, decided Jan. 2, 1923 (89 Okla. 70, 213 P. 303), this court held that as to whether the injury arose out of and in the course of the employment is a question of fact to be determined by the Industrial Commission under the facts and circumstances of each particular case, guided by...