283 P. 974 | Cal. Ct. App. | 1929
While standing on the open platform of the railroad station at Reno, Nevada, awaiting the arrival of a train which he was about to board for San Francisco, Elmer Melke was struck and mortally wounded by a stray bullet fired by a police officer at a suspected criminal whom the officer was pursuing along the public street adjacent to the railroad station; and on account of Melke's death his widow and son were awarded compensation by the Industrial Accident Commission. Thereafter his employer Frigidaire Corporation and its insurance carrier Royal Indemnity Company instituted this proceeding in certiorari to have the award annulled upon the ground that the injury which resulted in Melke's death did not arise out of his employment.
[1] The deceased was employed by said corporation as zone manager for Northern California and Nevada, his duties consisting in planning, supervising and inspecting the installation of refrigerator plants within his district. His headquarters were in San Francisco and he lived in Berkeley. Having finished his labors in Reno he proceeded to the railroad station intending to board the San Francisco train leaving there at 9 o'clock in the evening; and as he stood on the edge of the station platform adjacent to the street identifying his hand luggage which had just been deposited there by the hotel bus driver, he was struck by the wild bullet from the policeman's pistol and died soon afterward. *29
The commission's determination that Melke's injury happened in the course of his employment is not questioned; and in view of the fact that he was required to travel about from place to place and to be in and around public places and upon the public streets, petitioners make no claim that any injuries he might have received as a result of exposure to the ordinary perils of the street and of such public places would not have been compensable; but they contend that the danger of being shot by a police officer in the pursuit of a fleeing criminal cannot be classified as a street risk or a travel hazard; and that since Melke's injury was received from such source the same is not compensable under the terms of the Workmen's Compensation Act (Stats. 1917, p. 831).
We are of the opinion that the present situation is analogous to the one considered in the case of Katz v. Kadans Co.,
The same reasoning was applied in a number of other cases. InGreenberg v. Voit,
[2] The theory upon which compensation is awarded in the class of accidents above mentioned is that the causal connection between the employment and the injury, which is essential to make it compensable, consists in the fact that the employment requires the presence of the employee upon the street and the fact that the injury was caused by some human or mechanical instrumentality incidental to the use of the street. In other words, as said inGlobe Indemnity Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com.,
In support of their position petitioners emphasize certain language used argumentatively in the decision in the case ofStorm v. Industrial Acc. Com.,
It is our opinion that the authorities hereinabove cited fully sustain the determination of the respondent commission *32 that Melke's injury arose out of his employment. The award is therefore affirmed.
Tyler, P.J., and Cashin, J., concurred.
A petition for a rehearing of this cause was denied by the District Court of Appeal on January 30, 1930, and an application by petitioners to have the cause heard in the Supreme Court, after judgment in the District Court of Appeal, was denied by the Supreme Court on February 27, 1930.