47 P.2d 163 | Okla. | 1935
Tom F. Davis, the respondent (claimant) was employed by Stanolind Pipe Line Company as a pipe line welder. His car was standing some 200 yards from the pipe line. It being near quitting time, he left the pipe line and approached his car with a "bull plug" which he was going to take to the end of the line and insert in the open pipe and then go on home.
Three drunken men approached in another automobile, alighted therefrom and attacked claimant, striking him in the back with a hammer, resulting in a fractured backbone. The attackers had formerly been employees of petitioner but had recently been discharged. They imagined the claimant had reported them for stealing gasoline, causing their discharge, but both the petitioner and the claimant deny that he had ever informed the petitioner of said theft, or that he knew anything about it. After the attack on claimant the drunken men found the night watchmen, whom they also attacked. It does not appear that the attackers destroyed or interfered with any property belonging to petitioner. There is no evidence of any ill feeling against the petitioner on the part of the attackers, the basic cause of the fight appearing to be nothing but the combined effect of drinking and a fancied and self-manufactured grievance against the claimant. It does not appear why they attacked the night watchmen unless they also fancied the watchmen reported them for stealing gasoline. It is also uncertain, from the record, just how long they had been discharged; at any rate, they were not fellow employees.
The State Industrial Commission made an award to claimant under the Workmen's Compensation Act. In this original action by the employer to review said award, it is contended that the injury was not one "arising out of and in the course of his employment," within the meaning of section 13351, O. S. 1931.
In order for an accidental personal injury *192
to be compensable under the Workmen's Compensation Act, it must have been sustained not only "in the course of," but also "arising out of" the employment, and the two are not synonymous. The words "in the course of" refer to the time, place, and circumstances under which the accident occurred, and the words "arising out of" refer to the origin and cause of the accident and its connection with the employment. Both of these elements must exist, otherwise the injury is not compensable. Willis v. State Ind. Comm.,
It is unnecessary to consider the question of whether the injury was sustained "in the course of" the employment. After considering all of the Oklahoma cases on this subject, we conclude that the injury was not one "arising out of" the employment.
In Honnold's "Workmen's Compensation," vol. 1, section 101, it is said:
"The importance of distinguishing between these terms ('in the course of' and 'arising out of') arises from the fact that each represents an element essential to but not authorizing recovery of compensation without the presence of the element raised by the other. In other words, even though the injury occurred 'in the course of the employment' if it did not 'arise out of the employment,' there can be no recovery. * * * The character or quality of the accident as conveyed by the words 'out of' involves the idea that the accident is in some sense due to the employment. It must result from a risk reasonably incident to the employment."
There is little difficulty experienced in the normal, average case where the workman is injured by some act or misfortune directly connected with the employment. But trouble is often experienced on the other extreme, when the workman has been injured by reason of the act of some other person or as the result of some extraneous phenomenon of nature.
A review of the Oklahoma cases dealing with this particular subject may help to clarify the situation. We observe that on this "outer extreme" the cases in which it was held that the accident arose out of the employment all fall within one of three classes:
(1) Where the injury was sustained because of an act of the employer or a fellow employee;
(2) Where the injury was sustained while the injured employee was protecting the employer's property;
(3) Where the injury was sustained by reason of the employee's being placed, by the nature of his work, in a position or under circumstances subjecting him to a greater hazard of injury by lightning, sunstroke, storm or the like than other people in the same vicinity who are not engaged in such work; in other words, where the employment increased the danger of being injured by the lightning, sunstroke, etc.
That case was shortly followed by Stasmos v. State Ind. Comm.,
In Marland Refining Co. v. Colbaugh,
Oklahoma-Ark. Tel. Co. v. Fries,
In Roxana Pet. Corp. v. State Ind. Comm.,
In the cases of Pawnee Ice Cream Co. v. Cates,
The same principle was involved and the same result reached in Consolidated Pipe Line Co. v. Mahon,
Baker v. State Ind. Comm.,
The case of Town of Lindsay v. Sawyer,
"The decisions of this court in Willis v. State Ind. Comm. et al.,
We can see no causal connection between the employment and the injury. Merely because the superintendent was talking about a matter in connection with his employment, or even if he had been present at the place of his actual duties, does not in itself establish that the injury arose out of the employment, for "it is not enough that the injured person may have been present at the time of the accident because of his work, unless the injury is the result of some risk of the employment." Farmers Gin Co. v. Cooper,
The latest opinion of this court on the particular point involved in the instant case is I. T. I. O. Co. v. Lewis,
"An injury does not arise out of the employment within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act of the state of Oklahoma unless it results from a risk reasonably incident to the employment, and unless there is apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration of all the circumstances, a causal connection between the conditions under which the work is required to be performed and the resulting injury. * * * It then remains for us to ascertain whether, under the undisputed facts in this case, the accident sustained by claimant herein resulted from a risk reasonably incident to the employment, and unless it is apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration of all the circumstances, that there is a causal connection between the condition under which the work is required to be performed and the resultant injury, it will then become our duty to vacate the award. The evidence before the Commission was comparatively brief, and the resume of same herein contained is fairly complete. There can be nothing found therein which would sustain a conclusion that the injury in this case resulted from a risk reasonably incident to the employment, or that claimant in such employment was exposed to the hazard of robbery or assault with a deadly weapon any more than were other persons of the community in the conduct of their business or personal affairs. Our attention is directed to other cases where the source of the injury came from without the actual employment, and cases where the force causing the injury arose or came from without the actual employment, and in many such cases it was held that the injury did arise out of and in the course of employment and was compensable. But an examination of all such authorities clearly indicates that such accidental injuries were held to be compensable for the reason that there was some causal connection between the accidental injury and the particular employment, or that there was some hazard or risk of such injury incident to the particular nature of the employment in question. * * * We, therefore, hold that the injury sustained by claimant did not arise out of and in the course of his employment."
The instant case does not fall within any of the above three classifications, but it does fall exactly within the set of facts upon which I. T. I. O. Co. v. Lewis, supra, was determined. If it be assumed that claimant was injured "in the course of" his employment, which we do not here decide, still there is no fact whatsoever reasonably tending to sustain the finding that the injury "arose out of" the employment. If we assume that the claimant was engaged in performing his duties at the time he was injured, then so was the claimant in I. T. I. O. Co. v. Levis. But that is not enough. See Farmers Gin Co. v. Cooper, supra.
It is true that from the evidence the Commission would be authorized in concluding that the drunken men had been employees of the petitioner and were motivated by a spirit of revenge against an act (claimant's reporting them) which, if it had existed, may have been in the line of claimant's duty. But the undisputed evidence is that claimant had not reported the men for stealing gasoline, and that he did not even know why they were discharged. Such is not sufficient *195
basis for the conclusion that the injury arose out of the employment, for a stronger basis was denied in Farmers Gin Co. v. Cooper,
For an injury to have arisen "out of" the employment, it must be apparent to the rational mind, upon consideration of all the circumstances, that a causal connection exists between the conditions under which the work is required to be performed and the resulting injury. If it can be seen to have followed as a natural incident of the work and to have been contemplated by a reasonable person familiar with the whole situation as a result of the employment, then it arises out of the employment. But the phrase excludes an injury which cannot be fairly traced to the employment as a contributing proximate cause and which comes from a hazard under which the workman would have been equally exposed apart from the employment. The causative danger must be peculiar to the work and must be incidental to the character of the business. It must appear to have had its origin in a risk connected with the employment and to have flowed from that source as a rational consequence.
While it is true that the Workmen's Compensation Act should be liberally construed to afford every possible reasonable protection to the workman, there nevertheless is a limit beyond which such "construction" ceases to be liberal and becomes unbridled. The cases herein cited and quoted from recognized that the outer fringe of liability had already been reached, and to extend the doctrine further without just cause would make of the employer an absolute insurer, wholly contrary to the limitations imposed by the act. By that we do not mean to hold that in this peculiar class of cases there can be no liability unless the facts of the particular case bring it within one of the three classifications herein recognized. They are not exclusive. But it is apparent that any such new classification must reasonably conform to the well-settled requirements reviewed herein.
Being unable to conclude as a matter of law that the injury herein involved "arose out of" the employment, wherefore a very essential element of liability was wholly lacking, we are likewise unable to affirm the award, and it is hereby vacated.
McNEILL, C. J., and RILEY, CORN, and GIBSON, JJ., concur.