156 N.E. 642 | NY | 1927
One Field was general manager and superintendent of a mill. Magid, a knitter in the mill, was doing unsatisfactory work, and Field ordered him discharged. The message giving word of the discharge was brought to Magid about 5.15 P.M. He kept on working, however, till 5.30, the closing hour for the factory. Field, finding him in the building, ordered him to leave. Angry words followed, Magid asking whether Field was strong enough to put him out, and Field retaliating by raising a bobbin in the air. Other workmen who were by, pulled Magid away. A few minutes later, Field went downstairs and out of the building. Magid, waiting for him on the sidewalk, three or four feet from the door, challenged him to fight. Field tried to walk away, but Magid struck him in the face. He fell backward, fracturing his skull, and died. An award in favor of dependent relatives was reversed upon appeal.
Our decisions make it plain that the injury to Field was one that might fairly be found by the triers of the facts to have arisen "out of" the employment (Workmen's Comp. Act; Cons. Laws, ch. 67, § 2, subd. 7). Magid was the aggressor in an assault provoked by the discharge and the ensuing war of words (Matterof Rydeen v. Monarch Furniture Co.,
We think the line of division is drawn too narrowly and closely when circumstances of place are thus considered to the exclusion of all others. The quarrel outside of the mill was merely a continuation or extension of the quarrel begun within. Magid, pulled away from his enemy indoors, was waiting for his vengeance at the gate, and took it on the instant. The rule is well settled that an employee, even after closing time, is in the course of employment until a suitable opportunity has been given to leave the place of work (Matter of Lynch v. City of New York,
The facts being what they are, there is no occasion to consider whether a recovery would be permitted though the unity of the transaction were less apparent than it is (Cudahy Packing Co.
v. Parramore,
The order of the Appellate Division should be reversed, and the award confirmed, with costs in the Appellate Division and in this court.
POUND, CRANE, ANDREWS, LEHMAN and O'BRIEN, JJ., concur; KELLOGG, J., dissents.
Ordered accordingly.