24 A.D.2d 678 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1965
The decedent was a Supervisor of the Town of Lowville and on June 22, 1962 was host at a picnic and party at a camp of the Town Clerk, during the course of which he fell from a boat and was drowned. The record discloses that such affairs were held three or four time a year for county, town, village officials and others and that they were considered to be social meetings to which municipal officers and others were invited. The witnesses were unanimous, as appears from their testimony in at least 12 different places in the record, that the event had no connection with municipal business and it was described by one of the officials “ paraphrasing Mr. Geer we go there, to those things, to get away from business”. (Emphasis supplied.) The board found “ that the outing arranged by the deceased, in his capacity as Town Supervisor and at which the Town board members and village officials were invited, fostered employee good will and insured [sic] to the benefit of the employer ”. Section 22.00 of volume 1 of Larson, Workmen’s Compensation Law states that recreational or social activities are within the course of employment when: “ (a) They occur on the premises during a lunch or recreation period as a regular incident of the employment; or (b) The employer, by expressly or impliedly requiring participation, or by making the activity part of the services of an employee, brings the activity within the orbit of the employment; or (c) The employer derives substantial direct benefit from the activity beyond the intangible value of improvement in employee health and morale that is common to all kinds of recreation and social life.” We can eliminate the usual employer-employee relationship where an accident at a company sponsored picnic and/or athletic event has been held to be compensable, for here the relationship concerns an elected municipal official. We take judicial notice of the fact that a Supervisor, such as the decedent,