Williams v. Tennessee Val. Butane Co., 8 Div. 810
| Decision Date | 13 September 1956 |
| Docket Number | 8 Div. 810 |
| Citation | 265 Ala. 145,90 So.2d 84 |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
| Parties | Susie Lee WILLIAMS v. TENNESSEE VALLEY BUTANE COMPANY. |
Howell T. Heflin, Tuscumbia, for appellant.
Mitchell & Poellnitz, Florence, for appellee.
Susie Lee Williams, widow of William E. Williams, instituted these proceedings to recover benefits alleged to be due to herself and her minor children under the Workmen's Compensation Laws of Alabama. § 253 et seq., Title 26, Code of 1940. It is claimed by her that these benefits grow out of the death of her husband, William E. Williams, who died on February 13, 1952, as the result of an accident suffered while acting within the line and scope of his employment with the Tennessee Valley Butane Gas Company, a corporation.
The case was heard before the court who denied the relief sought by the petition. The question for decision is whether the alleged death of William E. Williams arose out of and in the course of his employment.
The court made a finding of fact in considerable detail. We shall undertake to set out enough of the findings of fact by the court so that the case may be understood.
Tennessee Valley Butane Company is a corporation with its place of business in Sheffield, Alabama, and C. H. Doss is its president. The deceased William E. Williams had been employed by the defendant as an installation and service man and was guaranteed employment for forty hours a week. About the last of January 1952 the deceased had gone to his home in Nashville, Tennessee, to do some work there for himself, with an understanding that he would return when and if needed. A few days before February 12, 1952, there was a telephone conversation between Doss and the deceased and the deceased agreed to return to the defendant's place of business for the principal purpose of reworking a motor in one of defendant's trucks and to do any other work that the defendant might need to have done while he was there. The deceased arrived at the defendant's place of business around 4:00 P.M. on February 12, 1952. He talked with Doss until about 4:30 P.M. on that day who at that time asked the deceased to go with another employee and check a thermostat on a furnace in a customer's house. The deceased put on his coveralls and was ready to make the call as requested but it was decided to wait until the next morning to make the call since the other employee had to leave.
The defendant's business closed that day at about 5:00 P.M. and Doss remained until about 6:00 P.M., during which time he and the deceased went in the office of Doss at the defendant's place of business and had a couple of drinks each out of a pint bottle of whiskey. Around 6:00 P.M. Doss left and left the remaining whiskey in the pint bottle there with deceased at the place of business. Deceased stated that he would probably stay that night at the Florence Rooming House.
It was the understanding with Doss that deceased would start to work the next morning. However in the past deceased had worked whenever he saw fit, including nights, and deceased was paid for whatever number of hours he worked and turned in. It would have been all right with the defendant for deceased to have worked that night on the truck motor or on any other equipment in defendant's place of business which needed repairs. However Doss did not assign deceased any work to do that night and according to Doss, so far as he knew the deceased did no work that night. Doss came to the place of business after the accident, which we will hereinafter describe, and again the next morning and saw no evidence of any work that the deceased might have done that night.
According to Doss the deceased was under the same general agreement on February 12th after he returned as far as employment was concerned, that is on a forty hour a week $2 an hour guarantee.
After Doss left the defendant's place of business at about 6:00 P.M. there is no evidence to show where the deceased was or what he was doing until about 8:00 P.M. or after, at which time he went to the apartment of Mrs. Lena Cooke, whose husband was also an employee of the defendant and whose apartment was on the second story of the building in which the defendant's place of business was located. Cooke and his wife had gone to bed. When Cooke went to the door and let deceased in the apartment and the deceased asked Cooke if he wanted a drink and Cooke replied that he did, Mrs. Cooke got out of bed and put something on the kitchen table for deceased to eat and she saw deceased with a pint whiskey bottle before she returned to bed and heard him say that he was staying at the Reeder Hotel for the night. After the accident, which occurred down stairs in the defendant's place of business, Mrs. Cooke saw the pint bottle of whiskey again in her kitchen and it was empty.
At about 10:00 P.M. deceased went across the street from the defendant's place of business to the Valley Center Cafe. He drank a Coca Cola and ate a cheeseburger and stated to the waitress that he did not want anything else, that he had to get back to work. Deceased left the Valley Center Cafe about closing time which was around 11:00 P.M. and he left with one of the waitresses in the cafe, Geraldine McLemore, and her friend Freeman Harden, who was also an employee of defendant. The three of them went from the Valley Center Cafe and parked in front of the defendant's place of business. Deceased and Harden went in the defendant's place of business and 'stayed a right smart while.' Geraldine remained in the car until the deceased and Harden came out of the building and the deceased begged Geraldine and Harden to stay with him.
About 11:30 P.M. Mrs. Robert Richardson, who also occupied a flat on the second story of the building where the defendant's place of business was located, heard and saw deceased and Harden laughing and talking outside of defendant's place of business. Harden and Geraldine left and as they looked back toward deceased, it appeared that he was going across the street to R. D. Moore's Cafe.
After 11:00 P.M. and close to midnight, the deceased went into R. D. Moore's Cafe, which was across the street from defendant's place of business, and ordered some beer to take with him. The waitress...
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