212 N.W. 192 | Minn. | 1927
The reshingling of a small house was a casual employment, but that did not exclude the workman from the benefits of the act, provided the employment was in the usual course of the business or occupation of his employer. The facts in relation thereto are stipulated and in substance embodied in this finding:
"That on September 16, 1925, Peter Sink was employed by Walter E. Pharaoh, the above named employer, at a weekly wage of $17.60, which said employment was that of a carpenter to make certain repairs, consisting in part of reshingling a residence property owned by the employer in the city of Minneapolis, and which said property had been so owned for a period of about ten years, but had never been occupied by the employer as his residence, but the said employer had during all of said time leased the said property, as the owner thereof, to tenants, and that said residence property was the only property of that character owned by said employer, and that said employer was not engaged in any other trade, business, profession or occupation except that of owning and renting the said residence property."
The stipulation of facts states that Pharaoh is a retired farmer living with his wife in Monticello, Minnesota, in a house owned by the wife; that he owns no real property except this house No. 3033 Twentieth avenue south in Minneapolis, which he rents out for $24.50 per month; that this house required reshingling, due to a windstorm having damaged the roof; and that he employed Peter Sink to do the job at 40 cents per hour. Pharaoh has no regular trade or occupation but has done occasional work by the day since retiring from farming, such as assisting in cutting meat and waiting on trade in a meat market at Monticello.
Can it be said that the owning, letting, paying taxes and keeping in repair this solitary dwelling constitutes a business or occupation *139
within the meaning of the quoted part of the act? We can well conceive that a person may embark in the owning and letting of houses so that it results in a business or occupation. But had this small dwelling been owned by a merchant, doctor, or lawyer and had Sink been employed to reshingle the same, could it have been said that the employment was in the usual course of the business or profession of the owner? True, a person may engage in more than one business or be in a profession and a business at the same time. Benoy v. Torkelson,
That other courts take the same view of similar exceptions in workmen's compensation acts appears in Lauzier v. Industrial Acc. Comm.
Respondent cites Holmen Creamery Assn. v. Industrial Comm.
Upon the facts the employment here in question was not covered by the workmen's compensation act, and the award must be set aside.
So ordered. *141