176 A.D. 87 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1916
The Commission states that it certifies to the court the question as a question of law. It has, however, determined, as a matter of fact, that the death resulted from accidental injuries which arose out of and in the course of the employment. W e interpret the question to mean whether there is evidence to sustain their findings of fact, for in the absence of such evidence their findings would be an error of law.
The deceased, while in the employ of the Standard Oil Company at its refinery at Buffalo, during business hours, about
But it is urged that facts now to be mentioned furnish “substantial evidence to the contrary ” and establish that the case is not within the law and that the injury did not arise out of and in the course of the employment.
Adjoining the workroom in which the decedent was employed was a locker room in which each employee had a locker in which to keep his street clothes when at work and his work clothes at other times. For some unknown purpose the decedent left his workroom and entered the locker room, closed the door after him and was there five or six minutes; then he rushed out of the room with the left front side of his shirt ablaze. He died from the results of the burning the same day. The locker room had formerly been used as a test room, but all the testing apparatus had been removed except a Bunsen burner, over which there was an iron hood with a six-inch ventilator pipe through the roof. This burner was formerly used for flashing oil, but at the time of the accident was used occasionally for heating samples of oil in the wash tanks and occasionally for heating glue for repairs. But the decedent had no duties with reference to the burner; it was for the special use of two men in the repair shop. The locker which was used by the decedent was about two feet from the end of the hood over the burner and about four and one-half feet from the burner itself. The burner was lighted at the time the decedent entered the room and after the accident. A burnt match
All concurred.
Award affirmed; question answered in the affirmative.