Swanson v. Latham & Crane

• Decision Date: 06 July 1917
• Citation: 101 A. 492,92 Conn. 87
• Court: Connecticut Supreme Court
• Parties: SWANSON v. LATHAM & CRANE et al.

101 A. 492

92 Conn. 87

SWANSON

v. LATHAM & CRANE et al.

Supreme Court of Errors of Connecticut.

July 6, 1917.

Case Reserved from Superior Court, Hartford County; Edwin B. Gager, Judge.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Alice May Swanson against Latham & Crane, employer, and the iEtna Life Insurance Company, insurer. Prom an award of compensation by the compensation commissioner, the respondents appealed to the superior court in Hartford county. Questions of law raised reserved for the advice of this court. Judgment advised, dismissing the appeal.

Warren B. Johnson and Leonard J. Collins, both of Hartford, for appellants. William A. King and Samuel B. Harvey, both of Willimantic, for appellee.

WHEELER, J. The facts essential to the decision of this appeal, as found by the commissioner, are these:

The claimant is the widow of Andrew S. Swanson, a carpenter who was employed by the respondents, Latham & Crane, building contractors, of Willimantic, to work upon the Dennis house in Stafford Springs, for the repair of which the contractors had the contract. The contractors agreed, as a part of the contract of employment with Swanson and five other employes, including Osterhout, similarly employed, who lived in or near Willimantic, that they would pay them, in addition to their regular wages, their transportation charges, fixed at 90 cents each day, from Willimantic to Stafford Springs and return. These employes were at liberty to remain in Stafford Springs and use the 90 cents for board, or to return to Willimantic and use it for transportation.

The contractors arranged with Osterhout, one of these workmen, to carry these employes, to and from Stafford Springs in his own automobile, operated and maintained by him, for the sum of 90 cents a day for each man.

On this particular job the transportation for these men was provided by means of Osterfcout's automobile, which the men so used, and the 90 cents for each man paid by the contractors to Osterhout, and charged to Dennis, and later paid by him.

On December 7, 1916, about 5 o'clock in the afternoon, while returning from their work in Stafford Springs to their homes in Willimantic, the automobile collided with a train at a railroad crossing, and Swanson and the other five men in the automobile were killed.

The questions of law reserved are:

"Did the commissioner err in holding: (1) That the injury to and death of the decedent arose out of his employment with the respondents Latham & Crane. (2) That the injury to and death of the decedent arose in the course of said employment. (3) That the claimant was entitled to compensation by reason of said injury and death. (4) That there was an understanding or agreement between the employers and the Carpenters' Union whereby the former agreed to provide transportation for the decedent., (5) That it was a part of the contract of employment between the employers and the decedent that the latter was to be carried to and from his work by Osterhout."

These questions, following the correspondingly numbered reasons of appeal, are identical with them, except that in...