Scalia v. American Sumatra Tobacco Co.

• Decision Date: 17 December 1918
• Citation: 105 A. 346,93 Conn. 82
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: SCALIA v. AMERICAN SUMATRA TOBACCO CO. et al. SALA v. SAME.

105 A. 346

SCALIA v. AMERICAN SUMATRA TOBACCO CO. et al.

SALA v. SAME.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

December 17, 1918

Appeal from Superior Court, Hartford County; Lucien F. Burpee Judge.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by the dependent mother of Josephine Sala and by Carmelo Scalia for compensation for death of Josephine Sala and Catherine Scalia, opposed by the American Sumatra Tobacco Company employer, and another. Defendants' appeals from awards of Compensation Commission dismissed by Superior Court, and defendants appeal. No error.

Patrick Healey, of Waterbury, for appellants.

Michael G. Luddy and Thomas J. Molloy, both of Hartford, for appellees.

RORABACK, J.

These two cases were tried together, and the findings and questions arising therein are identical. The questions presented by the appeals are: Did the superior court err in affirming the findings of the commissioner upon the evidence: (1) That the injury and death of the decedents arose in the course of their employment; (2) that the injury and death of the decedents arose out of their employment by the American Samatra Tobacco Company, defendant; (3) that a contract of employment was entered into by the decedents with the tobacco company; (4) that a condition of the contract of employment was that the tobacco company would transport the decedents from Thompsonville to its South Windsor plantation by automobile, and that transportation was an essential part of the contract of employment, and reasonably incident thereto?

Following the general rule, this court has held that:

" When the finding and award of the commissioner appealed from are unauthorized in law, irregular, or informal, or based upon a misconception of the law, or of the powers or duty of the administrative tribunal, or are so unreasonable as to justify judicial interference, we may, on appeal, set aside the award." Powers v. Hotel Bond Co. 89 Conn. 149, 150, 93 A. 248.

There was evidence which plainly showed that: The claimants are the dependents of Josephine Sala and Catherine Scalia, who were killed when an automobile skidded and collided with a tree in the town of South Windsor, early in the morning of September 25, 1917. Prior to this date the decedents, with several other women, had been employed picking tobacco at the H. L. Vietts tobacco plantation in Hazardville, in the town of Enfield. The American Samatra Tobacco Company, the defendant, was then engaged in the business of raising, harvesting, and marketing tobacco, and among other places had a plantation in South Windsor, upon which, during the harvesting season, it employed women in large numbers. On the 24th day of September, 1917, the defendant tobacco company instructed its agent, Ralph E Moody, to employ some women who were quitting work at the Vietts plantation. The decedents were among these women, all of whom were foreigners and not well versed in the English language. Moody conferred with them, and told them, if they wanted work, to meet an automobile at the waiting station in the village of Thompsonville, in the town of Enfield, the next morning to be transported to the respondent's...