Saba v. Pioneer Contracting Co.

• Decision Date: 23 December 1925
• Citation: 103 Conn. 559,131 A. 394
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: SABA v. PIONEER CONTRACTING CO. ET AL.

131 A. 394

103 Conn. 559

SABA v. PIONEER CONTRACTING CO. ET AL.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

December 23, 1925

Appeal from Superior Court, Fairfield County; Arthur F. Ells, Judge.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Maria Rosa Saba claimant, for compensation for the death of John Saba employee, opposed by the Pioneer Contracting Company employer, and others. An appeal by the employer and others to the superior court from the findings and award of the Compensation Commissioner of the Fourth District in favor of claimant was dismissed, and they appeal. No error.

The commissioner found the facts as follows: The respondent employer entered into a contract with the town of Greenwich for the improvement of a public highway in Mianus, three or four miles east of the center of Greenwich. This contract began in the summer of 1923, and work was still being done in accordance with the contract in December, 1923. The deceased John Saba, was employed by the defendant company in connection with this work. A number of the men employed on this job lived in what is called the Hamilton Avenue school district in Greenwich, about six miles from where the defendant company was repairing the road. The day prior to the commencement of this job, the superintendent of the defendant employer instructed the deceased and the other employees who lived in that district to meet a truck of a subcontractor, whose truck was working on that job, at the Hamilton Avenue school to be taken to the job. It was thereafter the custom of the workmen living in that district to meet at the Hamilton Avenue school, and ride to the place of employment on that motortruck. The defendant employer did not pay for the truck for transporting the men to the job, but he knew that this was being done each day, and criticized the driver of the truck if he was late getting the men to work. The deceased was following the instructions given by the superintendent of the defendant employer in thus riding on this truck. On the morning of December 19, 1923, the deceased, with such other employees, boarded the truck at the Hamilton Avenue school to ride to the job. While riding on this truck the deceased stood up to rub his hands because of the cold weather, and, as he was doing this, fell off the truck, and in consequence of the fall died a short time later while on the way to the hospital. The commissioner found that the deceased sustained an injury arising out of and in the course of his employment, from which he died on December 19, 1923, and that the plaintiff claimant is entitled to compensation.

Warren F. Cressy, of Stamford, for appellants.

Dominic A. Roina, of Greenwich, for appellee.

CURTIS, J. (after stating the facts as above).

Before the commissioner, the defendant moved for a correction of the finding in the following particulars, by adding, after paragraph 10 thereof, the following:

10a. " The instruction to the men to meet the truck on the first morning of their employment at the Hamilton Avenue school to be taken to the job was given because the foreman, Ignazzio Firantello, was unable to go with the men to the job, and they did not know where the work was."

10b. " The truck upon which the decedent was riding at the time he was injured was not under the control of the employer, nor had he any right to direct its movements."

10c. " The movements of the decedent, Saba, were not under the control of the employer before he arrived on the job at 8 o'clock a. m., or after he left there at 4:30 o'clock p. m. Whether he went home upon this truck or in some other way, or whether he arrived at the job by the truck in question or by some other method, was not in any manner included in the contract with the employer, nor under the employer's control."

10d. " The employment of the deceased and his pay began when he arrived at the job at 8 o'clock in the morning, and ceased at 4:30 o'clock in the afternoon."

This motion the commissioner denied. To this ruling the defendants duly excepted, and filed therewith certain exhibits of...