Swift & Co. v. Indus. Comm'n

• Decision Date: 09 December 1921
• Docket Number: No. 14004.,14004.
• Citation: 299 Ill. 587,132 N.E. 801
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Parties: SWIFT & CO. v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

299 Ill. 587

132 N.E. 801

SWIFT & CO.

v.INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 14004.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Oct. 22, 1921.

Rehearing Denied Dec. 9, 1921.

Error to Circuit Court, Cook County; Oscar M. Torrison, Judge.

Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Frank Fox, employee, opposed by Swift & Co. Award by the arbitrator, confirmed by the Industrial Commission, was affirmed by the circuit court with modification, and employer brings error.

Reversed, and award set aside.

T. M. Coen, of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Bowe & Bowe, of Chicago (Augustine J. Bowe, of Chicago, of counsel), for defendants in error.

DUNN, J.

Frank Fox was employed by Swift & Co. in January, 1919, as a bricklayer on a job of bricking up boilers in a new boiler house. After working three or four days he was laid off for several days for lack of material, but returned to work, and on February 18, while at work, scratched the shin of his right leg on some loose brick. He paid no attention to this injury, but the next day he struck his head on a temporary brace, and the foreman, seeing the blood on his head, told him he had better go over to see the doctor. Fox then told the foreman about scratching his leg, and went to the doctor, who wiped off his head with a piece of cotton and bandaged the leg. Fox continued at work until the job was completed, about the 1st of March, losing no time. He was then unemployed until in April, when he got a job with the Indian Oil Company, at which he worked about a month, full time, when it was not raining. He quit work on May 14, 1919, because he was sick, and afterward was under the care of physicians or in a hospital for several months. He had a number of abscesses as a result of streptococcus infection. No claim was made for compensation until December 19, 1919, when he made an application to the Industrial Commission for an award. An award was made by the arbitrator which was confirmed by the Industrial Commission, and the circuit court of Cook county on review of the proceedings, after a slight modification confirmed the award of the Industrial Commission.

The employer, Swift & Co., by this writ of error questions the jurisdiction of the Industrial Commission to entertain the application, since no claim was made within six months after the injury. The defendant in error claims that jurisdiction exists by virtue of that part of paragraph (d) of section 8 of the Workmen's Compensation Act (Hurd's Rev. St. 1917, c. 48, § 133), which provides that--

‘In the event the employee returns to the employment of the employer in whose service he was injured, the employee shall not be barred from asserting a claim for compensation under this act: Provided, notice of such claim is filed with the Industrial Boart within eighteen months after he returns to such employment, and the said board shall immediately send to the employer, by registered mail, a copy of such notice.’

The defendant in error contends that his leaving off work at the direction of his foreman and calling on the company's doctor for the purpose of having his injury treated and his return to work at the direction of the doctor brings the...