Wilcox v. Shepherd Lumber Corp.

• Decision Date: 07 October 1949
• Docket Number: No. 32633.,32633.
• Citation: 55 S.E.2d 382,80 Ga.App. 71
• Parties: WILCOX. v. SHEPHERD LUMBER CORPORATION.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

55 S.E.2d 382

80 Ga.App. 71

WILCOX.

v.SHEPHERD LUMBER CORPORATION.

No. 32633.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 1.

Oct 7, 1949.

Arrinzie Wilcox filed a claim against the Shepherd Lumber Corporation, as employer, for workmen's compensation.

The Superior Court, Jeff Davis County, Gordon Knox, J., affirmed an award denying compensation, and claimant brought error.

The Court of Appeals, Sutton, C. J., affirmed the judgment, and held that the injury did not arise out of and in course of the employment

Syllabus by the Court.

1. For an injury to be compensable under the terms of the workmen's compensation act it must have been occasioned by an accident arising out of and in the course of the employment, and the burden is on the claimant to prove that the injury for which compensation is sought arose out of and in the course of the employment.

2. It is the general rule that a workman injured while going to or from his place of work is not in the course of his employment. There are certain exceptions to this general rule, but the evidence here fails to bring the claimant's case within any of the exceptions to the general rule in this respect; and the finding of the State Board of Workmen's Compensation that the accident did not arise out of and in the course of the claimant's employment was authorized by the evidence.

3. Findings of fact by the State Board of Workmen's Compensation supported by any competent evidence, in the absence of fraud, are conclusive and cannot be set aside by the courts, and since the finding of fact by the board that the claimant's injury did not arise out of and in the course of his employment was authorized, the award denying compensation was authorized, and the judge of the superior court did not err in affirming the finding and award denying compensation.

C. W. Heath, Hazlehurst, for plaintiff in error.

W. S. Mann, McRae, for defendant in error.

SUTTON, Chief Judge.

Arrinzie Wilcox filed with the State Board of Workmen's Compensation a claim against the Shepherd Lumber Corporation, as employer, for compensation for an injury alleged to have been sustained from an accident which arose out of and in the course of employment on February 20, 1948.

It appears from the evidence that the superintendent of the Shepherd Lumber Corporation, which is located at McRae, Georgia, approached John Moss, a part-time brick mason, who lived near Hazlehurst, in Jeff Davis County, with respect to repairing the boilers of the Shepherd Lumber Corporation at its sawmill at McRae, and Moss told the superintendent of the lumber corporation that he could repair the boilers, and he was also asked by said superintendent to bring with him any additional labor or help that he would need in repairing the boilers, as they were short of men at the mill. Moss then engaged Arrinzie Wilcox, the claimant, who was also a part-time brick mason, to help repair the boilers, and told him they would pay him $1.50 an hour and that he would be working for the Shepherd Lumber Corporation at McRae. The claimant and other help procured by Moss to repair the boilers lived in Jeff Davis County some 20 odd miles from the mill at McRae. Moss told the superintendant of the Shepherd Lumber Corporation that the bricklayer's time would be $1.50 per hour and that of the other men $.75 per hour, and he accordingly turned in their time and the Shepherd Lumber Corporation gave him one check for the whole amount. No mention or arrangement for transportation was made between the lumber corporation and Moss. Moss, the claimant, and other men repairing theboilers, rode from their homes in Jeff Davis County to the mill at McRae in a private automobile the first day they worked on the boilers, and the next two or three days they went back and forth in Moss' truck, which broke down, and the lumber corporation then loaned Moss a truck to transport himself and his men from their homes to their work and back, and on the morning of the second day said truck was being used for this purpose the claimant was accidentally injured in front of his home in Jeff Davis County when he was undertaking to board the truck to go to his work at the mill in McRae, while the truck was being operated by John Moss. The truck was loaned to Moss as an accommodation to transport himself and his men to and from their work, as above stated, and no charge was made therefor. Moss and his men, including the claimant, were paid for the time they worked at the mill, that is, their time started when they commenced work at the mill in the morning and stopped when they quit work there in the afternoon. There was evidence as to the manner in which the claimant was injured, the nature and extent of his injury, doctor's and hospital bills, etc. The above is only a summary of what the evidence shows, but is deemed sufficient for the purpose of this decision.

The single director found as a matter of fact: (a) that the claimant did not sustain an injury which arose out of and in the course of his employment as alleged; (2) that the claimant was not an employee of the Shepherd Lumber Corporation on February 20, 1948, the time of the alleged accident; (3) but that the claimant was an employee of John Moss; (4) and that John Moss was an independent contractor; and entered an award denying the claimant compensation; and, on appeal, the finding and award was approved by the full board. The superior court affirmed the award, and the claimant excepted.

1. In order for an injury to be compensable under the terms of the workmen's compensation act, it must have been occasioned "by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment." Cod...