White Star Motor Coach Lines of Illinois v. Indus. Comm'n

• Decision Date: 14 October 1929
• Docket Number: No. 19038.,19038.
• Citation: 168 N.E. 113,336 Ill. 117
• Parties: WHITE STAR MOTOR COACH LINES OF ILLINOIS v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

336 Ill. 117

168 N.E. 113

WHITE STAR MOTOR COACH LINES OF ILLINOIS

v.INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 19038.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 19, 1929.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 14, 1929.

Error to Circuit Court, Peoria County; Joseph E. Daily, Judge.

Proceeding under Workmen's Compensation Act by Bernice Baker opposed by the White Star Motor Coach Lines of Illinois, employer. The circuit court quashed a writ of certiorari sued out by the employer to review an order of the commission awarding compensation, and the employer brings error.

Reversed.

Heard and Dietz, JJ., dissenting.

George C. Bliss and John E. Cassidy, both of Chicago, for plaintiff in error.

Homer Barney, of Lacon, for defendant in error.

FARMER, C. J.

Henry Baker, a motor bus driver employed by the White Star Motor Coach Lines of Illinois, a corporation, died on December 11, 1926, as a result of being asphyxiated on that date with carbon monoxide gas in the company's garage on Fayette street, in Peoria. His widow and minor daughter filed their claim for compensation with the Industrial Commission, and an arbitrator made an award of $15 per week for a period of 273 1/3 weeks, which upon review before the Industrial Commission was confirmed. The circuit court of Peoria county quashed a writ of certiorari sued out by the motor coach company to review the order of the commission, and a writ of error was allowed to bring the cause to this court.

The record shows no controversy as to the facts. The White Star Motor Coach Lines (hereafter referred to as the company) was engaged in operating gasoline propelled motor busses from Peoria, Illinois, to several nearby villages and towns. The company maintained a central office, garage and repair department on Fayette street, in the business district of Peoria, where its busses were kept and cared for when not in use. The office of the garage was a small, inclosed, steam-heated room, having three or four chairs, a telephone, and an electric heater in it. The garage proper was about 60 feet wide, 20 feet high and perhaps 100 feet long. It had large windows and doors in the front and rear and several skylights in the roof. The place of business was not kept open, and no workmen were on duty there at night, though it appears that more than one employee had a key to the place. When the garage was closed and locked for the day, which was usually about 6:15 o'clock in the evening, there were no openings whatever in the building. The company employed Daniel Ehnle, a mechanic of seven years' experience, whose duty it was to keep the busses in first-class mechanical condition at all times. Repair work was done by him out on the road as well as in the garage, at which times he was in full charge of whatever work was being done. The deceased, Henry Baker, had been engaged in driving motor busses for more than a year. He lived with his wife and eight year old daughter at Henry, Ill., about 35 miles north of Peoria. His employment with the company as a motor bus operator required him to leave Henry at 7:30 each morning for Peoria. Later in the morning he made a round trip over a part of the same route from Peoria to Chillicothe. Upon his return to Peoria in the afternoon he completed the day's work by taking a bus to Henry, where he stayed all night at his home. On the afternoon of December 10, 1926, while making his return trip to Henry, the bus he was driving became disabled and he was forced to stop at Sparland, a small town about 26 miles north of Peoria and 9 or 10 miles from Henry. Baker telephoned to one of the company's employees at Peoria, advising that his bus was broken down and requesting that a mechanic be sent to fix it. The employee was unable to locate the mechanic, but left the necessary word with the mechanic's wife at his home and also communicated with Dentino, the company's manager and secretary, after the latter had come in from a bus trip to Farmington. About 9:45 p. m. Dentino talked over the telephone with Ehnle, who had gone to the company's garage for the purpose of securing some repair parts for the disabled bus, and Ehnle told the manager he would go right out to Sparland and make the repairs. Ehnle had a Dodge roadster automobile which he used in making repair calls out on the road, and he stopped for gas between 10:00 and 11:00 p. m. at the Sweeney oil station, in Peoria, which is only a few doors from the bus company's garage. Baker had not received the necessary mechanical assistance after two telephone calls to Peoria, and about 9:00 p. m. he telephoned to George Pelini, president of the bus company, at his home in Chillicothe, and told him of his predicament. Pelini told Baker the latter had better go home, but Baker replied he would wait for the mechanic. Ehnle, driving his Dodge roadster, reached Sparland about 12:30 a. m. The disabled bus had been placed in a garage at Sparland, and Ehnle and Baker worked on the bus there for more than an hour. They were unsuccessful in making the necessary repairs, and about 2:30 a. m. they drove back to Peoria in Ehnle's roadster. Baker and Ehnle were seen at the Sweeney oil station, near the company's garage in Peoria, between 4:00 and 4:30 a. m. and were in a restaurant about a block from the bus company's garage between 4:30 and 4:50 a. m. Baker had something to eat there, and they inquired of the restaurant keeper if they could ‘flop there for an hour.’ The restaurant keeper testified they said ‘they would have to get some kind of a crawl-in and would have about an hour to wait until they could make their run back.’ The restaurant man also heard one of the men say to the other: ‘We will have to get out of here and go over to the garage and rest an hour and start out at six.’ Ehnle had on his work clothes and Baker had his leather jacket and cap on when they left. Another driver and employee of the company, named Robb, came to the garage about 7:40 on the same morning, December 11. The building was closed and he unlocked the doors. Upon opening the front doors he found the garage was full of smoke. He heard an engine of one of the busses running but could hardly see the bus for the dense smoke. He also saw Ehnle's roadster sitting inside the garage to the left of the entry. He went back to...