54 S.E.2d 443 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1949
Where one goes upon the premises of an employer to which the public is invited, departs for a short distance, and is invited back by an employee for the purpose of negotiating the sale of a pistol, and while exhibiting the pistol to the employee it is accidentally discharged and kills the husband of the claimant, an employee not participating in the negotiations, the State Board of Workmen's Compensation is authorized to find that the death arose out of and in the course of employment, and the superior court did not err in affirming the award.
The single director found in favor of the claimant. The board affirmed this award. The defendants appealed to the Superior Court of Fulton County, assigning as error the board's final award on the ground that the injury resulting in the death of the claimant's husband was not an injury which arose out of the employment, and therefore was not compensable. The superior court affirmed the finding of the board, and, the defendants excepted.
We think that the board was authorized to find that the death of the employee resulted from an accident which arose in the course of and out of the employment. The employer's place of business was one to which the public was invited, whether to do business or not. The boy possessing the pistol, after having been upon the premises and having departed, was invited back by a coemployee of the deceased in connection with a transaction purely personal to himself. This fact, however, did not render the transaction one purely personal to the deceased. Such an invitation was certainly one to be anticipated. If the deceased had been killed by the carelessness of the fellow employee, we think there would be no doubt that the injury *262
would be compensable. We have held that injuries to a nonparticipating employee caused by horse-play are compensable (American Mutual Liability Ins. Co. v. Benford,
The court did not err in affirming the award granting compensation.
Judgment affirmed. Sutton, C. J., and Parker, J., concur. *263