267 Mass. 307 | Mass. | 1929
On July 21, 1927, the employee, Mark E. Holmes, while upon his employer’s premises was injured. He testified that just before one o’clock on the day of his
The board member found that the employee’s injury arose out of and in the course of his employment; that “he was within the scope of his employment while spending his lunch period on the premises of his employer and that he did not depart from its scope by sitting on a block of wood or chair, after finishing his lunch while waiting for the power to start; . . . that claimant’s employment exposed him in a special manner to the risk of injury while sitting on a block or chair waiting for the time to arrive to begin his work. . . that the condition which caused the employee to fall out of the back door was the remote cause of his injury and that the dominant or proximate cause of his injury was his fall.” Upon a claim for review the reviewing board affirmed the findings and decision of the board member, with one member dissenting. A decree was entered in favor of the employee in accordance with the decision of the board, from which decree the insurer appealed.
The scope of the employee’s employment was not strictly limited to the time he was actually engaged in his work. He is entitled to compensation for an injury received while he is
We are of opinion that the injury sustained while he was on the premises and waiting for the power to start so that he could resume his work could be found to have arisen out of and in the course of his employment as an incident of such employment. In Sundine’s Case, 218 Mass. 1, it was held that the employment of the claimant was not suspended when she left the employer’s premises about noon and went out for the purpose of getting a lunch, and in so doing fell upon a stairway and was injured.' It was said in that case, at page 4: “It would be too narrow a construction of the contract to say that it was suspended when she went out for this merely temporary purpose and was revived only upon her return to the workroom. It was an incident of her employment to go out for this purpose.” Von Ette’s Case, 223 Mass. 56. Stacy’s Case, 225 Mass. 174. O’Brien’s Case, 228 Mass. 380. Hallett’s Case, 232 Mass. 49. Rochford’s Case, 234 Mass. 93, 94, 95. White v. E. T. Slattery Co. 236 Mass. 28, 33, 34. Cusick’s Case, 260 Mass. 421.
Bahineau’s Case, 254 Mass. 214, and other cases relied on by the insurer are distinguishable in their facts from the present case. In the case at bar the finding that the claimant’s employment exposed him in a special manner to the risk of injury while sitting on the block waiting for the time to arrive to begin his work, and the further findings that his condition, which was due to dizziness or other causes, was the remote cause of his injury, and that the dominant or proximate cause was his fall out of the door, which resulted in his injury, were not as matter of law unsupported by the evidence. McCarthy’s Case, 232 Mass. 557. Sullivan’s Case, 241 Mass. 9, and cases cited.
Decree affirmed.