Treasurer of State of Mich. v. Kaiser-Frazer Corp.

• Citation: 40 N.W.2d 776,326 Mich. 715
• Decision Date: 09 January 1950
• Docket Number: KAISER-FRAZER,No. 69,69
• Parties: TREASURER OF STATE OF MICHIGAN v.CORPORATION et al.
• Court: Supreme Court of Michigan

Page 776

40 N.W.2d 776

326 Mich. 715

TREASURER OF STATE OF MICHIGAN v. KAISER-FRAZER CORPORATION et al.

No. 69.

Supreme Court of Michigan.

Jan. 9, 1950.

Markle & Markle, Detroit (Richard G. Eubank, Detroit, of counsel), for defendants and appellants.

Stephen J. Roth, Attorney General, Edmund E. Shepherd, Solicitor General, Lansing, Daniel J. O'Hara, Maurice M. Moule, Assistants Attorney General, for appellee.

Before the Entire Bench.

SHARPE, Chief Justice.

William P. McIntyre was employed as a sweeper at the Kaiser-Frazer plant at Willow Run. He completed his work on the night shift at 1:30 a. m., on January 8, 1947. He punched out at 1:31 a. m., left the building where he worked and crossed the factory grounds, a distance of approximately 300 feet, to the control gate in the fence surrounding the plant. He then proceeded in a northeasterly direction across a concrete highway which lay beyond the gate and between the building where he was employed and a parking space. He had proceeded approximately 102 feet across the highway when he was struck by an automobile driven by Earl Doane at about 1:45 a. m. Doane was also an employee who had finished his work and was on his way home. McIntyre was severely injured and died the next day.

The administrator of deceased's estate and the heirs of deceased elected to waive the benefits of the compensation law in favor of their common law remedy against the driver of the car.

In view of the fact that McIntyre left no dependents, the compensation commission issued an order to show cause why defendants, the employer and its insurer, should not pay $1,000 to the State treasurer under the provisions of section 8a, part 2 of the workmen's compensation act, P.A.1912, 1st Eq.Sess., No. 10, part 2, § 8a, as added by P.A.1943, No. 245, C.L. 1948, § 412.8a, Stat.Ann.1947 Cum.Supp. § 17.158(1), which provides as follows:

'If death results from the injury and the employ shall leave no dependents within the meaning of this act, the employer shall pay or cause to the paid the sum of $1,000.00, less any amount paid to the employe as compensation during his lifetime for the injury which resulted in death. Such sum shall be paid into the state treasury of this state to be held as a second injury fund and applied solely to the payment of compensation as hereinafter prescribed in this section. * * *'

The commission found that the deceased's injury and death arose out of and in the course of his employment by defendant company and the fact that deceased's estate filed a petition in the probate court of Wayne county for the purpose of bringing an action for damages against the driver of the car that struck deceased was immaterial in a second injury fund proceeding.

The throughfare on which the accident occurred was within the boundaries of property leased from the Reconstruction Finance Corporation to Kaiser-Frazer Corporation. The lease provided:

'Lessee shall have the right to joint use with Government of all railroad tracks and rights of way and highways, owned or controlled by RFC adjacent to or in the vicinity of the leased premises, but not located thereon, the use of which by Lessee shall be necessary or desirable in the conduct of its business on the leased premises; and Lessee shall pay to RFC a...