157 A. 379 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1931
Argued October 7, 1931. Plaintiff fell and was injured while walking on the sidewalk of a private street in the possession and under the control of her employer, at a point four or five feet away from the store entrance which she and her fellow employees were required to use. She was just about to enter the store building and begin her day's work, her department being located on the fourth floor. The private street which she was using was bordered on both sides by her employer's store buildings, which were connected by a bridge or bridges over the street above the first floor, and was used by it for loading and unloading goods. The bed of the street was owned by the Girard Estate from whom defendant leased its buildings, and the street was not on the city plan. Two sheds or platforms for receiving goods had been built by the employer defendant on the north sidewalk or pavement — the one used by plaintiff — and also a flower display stand, from which flowers were sold in connection with the store operations. The evidence requires the conclusion that this sidewalk was used as an integral part of the Snellenburg Store. The question at issue is whether plaintiff was injured in the course of her employment while on the "premises" of her employer.
The law is well settled that, in the absence of exceptional circumstances, which are not here present, an employee is not entitled to compensation for injuries received off the "premises" of the employer while going to or returning from work. To be entitled to compensation for injuries received when off the "premises" the employee must be "actually engaged in furthering the business of the employer": Bossard v. Nallin Jennings Park Co.,
The appellant contends that this plaintiff would not be entitled to compensation for any accidental injury that might occur to her until she had arrived at the *288
fourth floor of her employer's building and punched the time clock, but that is entirely too narrow a construction of the act. From the moment when, for the purpose of doing her work, she arrived on the "premises" where her employer carried on the business in which she was engaged, until she left those "premises" — provided there was no abandonment by her of her employment — she was within the protection of the act. Thus in Meucci v. Gallatin Coal Co.,
In the circumstances presented by the evidence in the case we agree with the court below that the private street abutting on the employee's entrance to the store building was so used by the defendant as to form part of the "premises" of its store operations and that plaintiff was within the protection of the Workmen's Compensation Act when she fell.
We pointed out in Hale v. Savage Fire Brick Co.,
The assignments of error are overruled and the judgment is affirmed.