183 Iowa 415 | Iowa | 1917
I. The statute (Section 34, Chapter 147, Acts of the Thirty-fifth General Assembly) provides that.:
1. Master and SERVANT : Workmen’s Compensation Act: jurisdiction of court to review decision of industrial commissioner. “Any party in interest may present certified copy of an order or decision of the commissioner or a decision of an arbitration committee from which no claim for review has been filed * * or a memorandum of agreement approved by the commissioner, and all papers in connection therewith, to the district court * * * whereupon said court shall render a decree in accordance therewith.”
The position of appellants is that the district court had no power to do what it did, because the words “in accordance therewith” refer to the order or decision, and nothing else, and that the formulation of decree cannot be affected by the words “ail papers in connection with same:” in fewer words, that the district court is bound by the final conclusion reached, and cannot consider the record upon which the conclusion certified rests. Appellants insist this contention is sustained because it was said, in Fischer v. Priebe, 178 Iowa 512:
“It was not within the authority of the court to review or reverse or modify the award. Its function in the matter was simply to receive the award certified to it and ‘render a decree in accordance therewith and notify the parties.’ This is what seems to have been done, and we find no error therein.”
That this is purely arguendo, is not necessary to decision, and does not decide what appellant claims, is made manifest by consideration of the situation to which these words were addressed. The complaint was that the distinct court had made an allowance which the commissioner had not made. We held that the commissioner did make such ' allowance, that it is not objected to, and, in effect, that insufficient objection is made to whatever the
The Fischer case makes no reference to Hunter v. Colfas Cons. Coal Co., 175 Iowa 245, and indeed, refers to no decision. In the Hunter case, at 308, we deal with an express objection that the act Avorks “an improper delegation of judicial power, and a denial of judicial hearing; that the courts are compelled to enter judgment upon the award without further hearing; that there is no provision for appeal from the judgment on the award except the limited one permitted by the act; that the judgment must be modified by the court, if modified by the commissioner, and that this works a denial of and taking property without due process of law.” It is self-evident that to pass upon this objection made it necessary to determine whether the powers given, or the limitations put upon, the district court made the statute Auilnerable to these objections. Of course, this could not be determined without bindingly passing upon what these poivers and limitations are. We found them to be of such character as that the objections were not well taken.
We hold,- first, there is no ouster of the courts where the act is rejected, and then proceed to say:
“A somewhat more difficult question arises when the provisions of the act are accepted. In that case, if the parties cannot come to an agreement, compensation fixed by statute schedule is awarded by arbitration provided for in the act. In a sense, then, the acceptance of the statute operates to take from the courts so much of the controversy as is determined by the applying of the statute schedules through the agency of the statute arbitrators. Before we reach the question- whether, if this constitute a total ouster of the jurisdiction of the courts, it would invalidate*420 the act, we of course have to determine whether such total ouster is so effected. IV e are forced to deal with this question as one of first impression, because no decision that sustains the Compensation Act of other states is applicable. The Washington Act and that of Massachusetts reserve recourse to the courts and full judicial review. In Sabre’s case (Vt.), 85 Atl. 694, 695, a delegation is sustained because, in the end, the matter may get to the Supreme Court and have full review. Borgnis v. Falk Co., (Wis.) 133 N. W. 209, sustains the Wisconsin act, with a holding that there is revieAV if the act be without poAver, or fraudulent; that, if the board act without or in excess of its jurisdiction, there may be action in court to set aside the award, and that this may also be done if its findings of fact are not supported by the evidence. Our act has no such reservations, in terms, and, therefore, these decisions afford us no light.” (314, 315).
In determining that there is not a total ouster of the courts, and that, therefore, the act is valid, we group certain things as being jurisdictional, — things upon which the power of the statute tribunals to act at all hinges. On this head, Ave said:
“The very basis of poAver to award compensation under the act is that its provisions must first be accepted; that the claimant must be an employe; that he must have sustained personal injuries; that they must have arisen out of and in course of the employment; and that the compensation shall be at rates fixed by the statute.” (317)
We.point out that Sabre v. Rutland R. Co., 86 Vt. 347 (85 Atl. 693), holds that, as the Constitution provides courts shall be open for trial of all cases proper and cognizable, therefore, the courts, regardless of statute, may determine whether the board created has gone beyond the powers granted it. And Ave add:
“We are in no doubt that the very structure of the law*421 of the land and the inherent power of the courts would enable them to interfere, if what we have defined to be the jurisdiction, conferred upon the arbitration committee were by it exceeded; that they could inquire whether the act was being enforced against one who had rejected it, whether the claiming employe was an employe, whether he was injured at all, whether his injury was one arising out of such employment, * * * or, acceptance (of the act) being conceded, * * * into whether that body attempt- . ed judicial functions in violation of, or not granted by, the act.”
We sustain the act for being in analogy with the rule that makes contracts lawful which provide that the value of certain property and other like matters shall be determined by a certain person therein named, and that his decision shall, be final, and say that such contracts are usually upheld as lawful because “they do not oust the courts of their jurisdiction over the subject matter, but only provide a safe and speedy manner of fixing definitely some fact which is usually of a complex and difficult nature,” and because, when such fact is determined in the manner provided by the contract, “the parties are at liberty, after so fixing such fact, to go into court and litigate such differences as may still exist between them” (315, 316). We say that, “so far as specific delegation goes, the arbitration committee can do no more than to find that the employe should have compensation under some item of the statute schedule, and the commissioner may, on investigation, make a finding that an award thus made shall be modified or terminated. ’ It is manifest that this does not in terms deprive the courts of all jurisdiction in the premises;”'that there are “provisions that indicate it is not intended, literally at least, to give the statutoi*y arbitrators all the powers that courts have” (317), — and, in commenting upon the appeal allowed, we hold that, “though the act does not
“All of which establishes that the statute works no complete ouster of jurisdiction. * * * The utmost it does is to provide administrative machinery for applying rates of compensation fixed by the legislature, as between parties who have agreed to have the amount of compensation, merely, thus determined.' The effect of statutes never challenged, so far as we are advised, which limit recovery for negligence causing death, is to compel the courts to do what here is done by the arbitrators.” (318, 319)
In Des Moines Union R. Co. v. Funk, decided January 27, 1919, it is recognized that certiorari will lie “where the objection made is clearly one of jurisdictional nature, and it satisfactorily appears that the proceeding sought to be reviewed is wholly unauthorized,” as a mere right of appeal in such case would not be a speedy or adequate remedy, within the meaning of the statute.
The Massachusetts Act (Acts & Besolves of Massachusetts, 1912, Ch. 571, Sec. 14) is on this point quite similar to our own. It provides that when “copies of * * * decision of the board * * * and all papers in connection therewith [have been transmitted] to the superior court, * * * said court shall render a decree in accordance therewith.” Construing this act, it was, in effect, held, in In re Employers’ Liability Assurance Corp., 102 N. E. 697 (Mass.), that this means such decree as the law requires upon the facts found by the board, and does not reduce the action of the superior court to a mere perfunctory registration of approval of the conclusion of law reached by the board or commissioner, and' that “the obligation placed upon the superior court by the requirement to enter a decree in accordance with the decision, is to exercise its judicial function by entering such decree as will enforce the legal
One may not read the Hunter case without being fully persuaded that we gravely doubted the constitutionality of the act, if it were open to the construction of appellant, and say that:
“Contracts by which the parties undertake to deprive themselves in toto of the right to resort to the courts to settle controversies between them in which are stipulated away all the rights of each or either to resort to the tribunals created by law, have been universally condemned. Wood v. Humphrey, 114 Mass. 185; Pearl v. Harris, 121 Mass. 390; Barron v. Burnside, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 931, 935.” (313, 314).
This leaves for our determination whether, on the merits, any recovery on part of the plaintiff is warranted.
“The general rule in construing compensation laws is that the responsibility of the employer begins Avhen his employee enters his premises to perform the services required of him, and terminates when the employee leaves such premises, provided that he does not loiter needlessly, or arrive at an unreasonable hour in advance of the beginning of his duties.” Gordon v. Eby, 1 Cal. Indus.’ Acc. Commis. Dec. No. 1.
The test seems to be whether deceased, “though actually through with the work, was still within the sphere of the Avork” (Note to Hills v. Blair, 182 Mich. 20 [148 N. W. 243]); Avas doing Avliat “a man so employed may reasonably do within a time during which he is employed, and at a
There are some holdings that run counter to these,— say, for instance, Mahoney v. Sterling Borax Co., 2 Calif. Ind. Com., 700. But, on the whole, we incline to think that this employee was injured while in the course of his employment. He was where he was hurt because he had been employed. While his day’s work was done, yet he remained where it was his duty to be, in order to begin the next day’s work. He remained all the time within the sphere that his employment had fixed. Thus far, we sustain the decision of the trial court.
“The burden of furnishing evidence from which the in
It must appear by a preponderance that there is some causative connection between the injury and something peculiar to the employment (Jones v. United States Mat. Acc. Assn., 92 Iowa 652); that it resulted from some risk reasonably incident to the employment, because “out of” involves the idea that the injury is in some sense due to the employment (Fitzgerald v. W. G. Clarke & Son, 2 K. B. [1908] 796) ; a causative, danger peculiar to the work, and not “common to the neighborhood,” an injury fairly traceable to the employment as a contributing cause, — to some hazard other than one to which the workman would have been equally exposed though in a different employment (McNicol's case, 215 Mass. 497 [102 N. E. 697]); a hazard peculiar to the business which is “the immediate cause” of the injury (Rodger v. Paisley School Board, 1 Scots Law Times [1912], 271, and see Robson, Eckford & Co. v. Blakey, 5 B. W. C. C. 536); an injury due to something more than the normal risk to which all are subject, which, at the least, means that the employment necessarily accentuates the natural hazard attendant upon work done in the course of the employment (State v. District Court, 129 Minn. 502 [153 N. W. 119]).
The words “out of” involve the idea that the accident is in some sense due to the employment. Barnabus v. Bersham Colliery Co., 103 L. T. R. 513; Fitzgerald v. W. G. Clark & Son, 2 K. B. (1908) 796. It is said in Hopkins v. Michigan Sugar Co., 184 Mich. 87 (150 N. W. 325), “an employe may suffer an accident while engaged at his work, or in the course of his employment, which in no sense is attributable to the nature of or risks involved in such employment, and therefore cannot be said to arise out of it.”
In Karemaker v. “Corsican,” 4 B. W. C. C. 295, a seaman, while, at work on his ship, had his hands frozen, from handling frozen ropes. It was held the injury did not arise out of the employment, because the frost bites were caused by the eléments. Warner v. Couchman, 1 K. B. (1911) 351, is to the same general effect. It has frequently been held that many accidents may happen to a workman, in the course of his employment, for which his employer would be under no liability. For illustration, a seryant engaged in a foundry yard, in the course of his employment, if struck by lightning and seriously maimed, would have no claim under Workmen’s Compensation Acts. Falconer v. London & G. E. & I. S. Co., 3 Courts of Sessions Cases (5th Series) 564. It is said in that case:
“It must, I think, have arisen ‘out of’ his employment, and in a more exact sense than that it occurred to him when*430 at or going about his own employment in or about the factory.” ..
The most that may be said where, as here, an employee is injured while sitting in his boarding tent, preparatory to going to bed, is that, if he had not been employed, he would not have been present in the tent, and would not have been struck at the time he was. In the same sense, the fact that he was born establishes a causative connection. If he had never come into being, he could not have been struck by lightning. The same argument might be made for a claim against one who sold a carriage to one who was struck by lightning while riding in it. What was said in Craske v. Wigan, 2 B. W. C. C. 35, covers the situation:
“It is not enough for the applicant to say ‘the accident would not have happened if I had not been engaged in this employment, or if I had not been in that particular place.’ The applicant must go further, and must say, ‘The accident arose because of something I was doing in the course of my employment, and because I was exposed by the nature of my employment to some peculiar danger.’’ ”
In our opinion, the injury claimed for did not arise “out of” decedent’s employment.
3-b
It is not intended to hold that injuries from lightning can in no case be due to an industrial employment. It has been rightly said that they can be. See State v. District Court, 129 Minn. 502 (153 N. W. 119). The vice in this decision seems to us to be that, while it recognizes there must be more than the normal risk from lightning to which all are subject, and that the employment must necessarily accentuate the natural hazard from lightning, this is not followed to its logical end, and a recovery for injury by lightning is allowed where there was no such accentuation or abnormal risk. All that is requisite is that the' employment
“To be struck by lightning is a risk common to all and independent of employment, yet the circumstances of a particular employment might make the risk not the general risk, but a risk sufficiently exceptional to justify its being held that accident from such risk was an accident arising out of the employment.”
And it has been rightly held that injury from lightning did arise out of the employment, where a telephone or telegraph operator was hurt by an electric shock received in the course of his work. Atlantic Coast Line R. Co. v. Newton, 118 Va. 222 (87 S. E. 618). And so where a workman on a high scaffolding- was kept at work during a storm. Andrew v. Failsworth Industrial Society, 2 K. B. (1904) 32. But where the servant is riding á corn cultivator, and plowing corn, being struck by lightning is suffering from what is not peculiarly invited by the employment. A lineman who, while at his work, is bitten by a snake, will not be allowed to trace his injury to his employment, even though he would not have been bitten had he been elsewhere than where his employment called him. On the other hand, if he touch a live wire, or is struck by lightning while repairing or putting up a. wire, he may well claim that his injury is peculiarly due to his employment. .
As was said in Kelly v. Kerry County Council, 1 B. W. C. C. 194, there must be evidence that the servant was exposed to a greater risk of being struck by lightning than if he had been working in a field or garden. In Robson,
“To what class of dangers does this man’s employment expose him? * * * Suppose he is a collier, I may say his employment exposes him to the risk of having things falling upon him from the roof, to the danger of tumbling down a shaft, and so on. In short, there is a peculiar class of dangers which exist only for -people who go down into' mines.”
It is further illustrated by employments which compel walking in the street, and remaining off the sidewalk, as to which it has been said* that there is a peculiar exposure to hazard from moving vehicles. In one word, it all turns upon whether it may in reason be said that, as distinguished from being hurt while employed, the injury is due to the nature of the employment. As said, we do not deny that being struck by lightning may be reasonably traceable to the nature of the work done, but decide that that may not be done in this case.
2-c
It does not necessarily folloAV, from the fact that one
“There is no doubt that it was the legislative intent to compensate workmen for injury resulting from industrial accidents, and that such compensation is charged against the industry because it is responsible for the injury.”
And in Hoenig v. Industrial Commission, 159 Wis. 646 (150 N. W. 996), that the law assumes “to provide compensation for industrial accidents only — those growing out of the employment and caused by the industry. * Those caused by the industry and chargeable to the industry, and does not apply to injury resulting from those forces of nature described in the common law as acts of God, such forces as are wholly uncontrollable by men.”
2-d
In our opinion, it was error to hold that here was an injury arising out of the employment. AVherefore, we are constrained to • reverse. — Reversed.