180 A.D. 143 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1917
The employer conducts a large retail coal business at a plant covering practically a city block in Brooklyn, N. Y. The plant consists of three buildings or pockets, containing twenty-eight compartments for different kinds of coal. The
The Commission has found that the employer “ was engaged in the. business of storage of coal within the meaning of group 29 of section 2 of the Workmen’s Compensation Law.” That group includes “ storage of all kinds and storage for hire.” (Consol. Laws, chap. 67 [Laws of 1914, chap. 41], § 2, group 29, as amd. by Laws of 1916, chap. 622.) The accident happened before the Legislature by the amendment of 1917 (Chap. 705) amended group 19 of section 2 so as to include coal yards.
I am unable to see how this award can be sustained unless we are prepared to hold that every merchant and country storekeeper in carrying, his ordinary supply and stock of goods is engaged in the storage business. The farmer who deposits his grain in the barn until such time as in the natural and ordinary course of events he would market the same; the merchant who purchases the grain from the farmer and temporarily deposits the same in some convenient place until opportunity presents itself to sell the same to a customer in the ordinary and natural routine of business; the miller
The award should be reversed and the claim dismissed.
All concurred, except Kellogg, P. J., who dissented for the reasons stated in his memorandum in Kronberger v. Harlem Bottle Co. (181 App. Div. 900), decided herewith.
Award reversed and claim dismissed.