State House Inn v. Industrial Commission

• Decision Date: 21 January 1965
• Docket Number: No. 38818,38818
• Citation: 32 Ill.2d 160,204 N.E.2d 17
• Parties: STATE HOUSE INN, Appellee, v. The INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. Appeal of Meta STRODE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 17

204 N.E.2d 17

32 Ill.2d 160

STATE HOUSE INN, Appellee, v. The INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. Appeal of Meta STRODE.

No. 38818.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Jan. 21, 1965.

Wm. H. Beckwith, Peoria, and Livingstone, Mueller, Drake & Davlin, Springfield, for appellant.

Giffin, Winning, Lundner & Newkirk, Springfield, (James M. Drake, Springfield, of counsel), for appellee.

KLINGBIEL, Chief Justice.

Meta Strode, employed as a switchboard operator at the State House Inn in Springfield, was injured while on duty during the early morning hours of November 12, 1961. An award of workmen's compensation by the Industrial Commission was reversed by the circuit court of Sangamon County, on the ground that the evidence was insufficient to show the injury arose out of her employment. The claimant appeals.

The claimant is a married woman 33 years of age. On November 11, 1961, she and the night manager, Dennis Smith, among others, were working the shift from 11:00 P.M. to 7:00 A.M. About three o'clock in the morning the two had finished almost all of their work at the desk and went into the dining room together for some lunch. The lights were dim and all other tables were unoccupied. Suddenly and without warning the claimant's husband appeared and violently assaulted the pair, striking them both in a fit of jealous rage. Smith ran into the kitchen, locking the door, and while her husband chased him the claimant went to the lobby and called the police. The incident out of which the injury arose happened as she came out from behind the desk. According to the claimant's testimony she slipped and fell on the floor, which she said was always slick, and after she had fallen her husband came out of the dining room to help her to her feet.

A bus boy on duty testified on respondent's behalf, however, that at the time in question he looked into the lobby and saw Mrs. Strode on the floor underneath a small table and being kicked by her husband, whereupon he went out the back door for the police. When he returned she was still lying on the floor under the table. A bellboy on duty testified that he heard Mrs. Strode hollering for help and that when he looked into the lobby from the elevator he saw her husband kicking her and striking her as she was lying on the floor. The witness made for the dining room looking for the manager, and Strode thereupon followed him, grabbed him and threatened to 'work me over' if he did not give him the key to the kitchen. When he told Strode he had no key the latter threw a chair at the door and went back into the lobby. A police officer who arrived in response to the police call found Mrs. Strode lying on the floor with her leg bent under her and her husband standing by her. The officer testified that she cried to him not to let her husband hit her any more, and that he ordered Strode to go over and sit down. An ambulance thereafter arrived and Mrs. Strode was taken to a hospital where X rays revealed she had sustained a verticle fracture of the left hip, at the neck of the femur.

Robert Adams, the house detective who had gone off duty before the incident occurred, testified that he talked to Mrs. Strode in the hospital later that morning. When he asked what happened she told him her husband had hit her and kicked her, and that she didn't know why, except that she had asked him for a divorce. She said nothing about having fallen down at the hotel.

On rebuttal the claimant called her husband, who admitted hitting her in the dining room but denied hitting her again or kicking her while she was on the floor in the lobby. According to his testimony, when he next saw her after the dining room encounter she was lying on the lobby floor and all he did was try to help her up.

The question is whether the evidence is sufficient to sustain a finding that the claimant's injury arose out of her employment, as required by the act. (Ill.Rev.Stat.1963, chap. 48, par. 138.1 et seq.) The mere fact that an employee is present at the place of injury because of his employment is not enough. Only if the injury is a result of some risk in the employment itself can an award be justified. (Math Igler's Casino, Inc. v. Industrial Comm., 394 Ill. 330, 63 N.E.2d 773) An injury arises...