80 Wash. 111 | Wash. | 1914
Respondent appealed to the lower court from a decision of the industrial insurance commission that she was not entitled to compensation upon the accidental death of her husband, the decision being based upon the ground that the deceased was not engaged in hazardous employment, within the meaning of the law, at the time of receiving the injury causing his death. The lower court overruled the finding of the commission, and directed that the claim be allowed, from which decree the commission has appealed.
The company employs ordinarily one, but sometimes two or three, carpenters for the purpose of making shelving, standards for display purposes, and necessary repairs, additions, and alterations in the fittings of the store, and the doing of odd carpenter jobs about the store. The deceased had been employed by the company as head carpenter prior to March 20, 1912, the day upon which he met his death, and in such employment had performed the ordinary carpentry work needed by the company in and about the store. On the day of the accident, Wendt attempted to turn on the electric
The act to be interpreted is chapter 74, Laws 1911, p. 345 (3 Rem. & Bal. Code, § 6604-1 et seq.). Section 1 of this act, in announcing the policy of the state in its treatment of working men injured in hazardous undertakings, declares that all phases of the premises' are withdrawn from private controversy, and sure and certain relief is provided for workmen injured in extra hazardous work, and their families and dependents, regardless of questions of fault, and to the exclusion of every other remedy. Section 2 (Id., § 6604-2) in enumerating the hazards intended to be embraced within the term “extra hazardous” as used in the act, names “factories, mills and workshops where machinery is used,” and ends with this general description of included occupations: “If there be or arise any extra hazardous occupation or work other than those hereinabove enumerated, it shall come under, this act.” Section 3 (Id., § 6604-3) defines workshop as follows:
It being shown that the deceased, at the time of his injury, was employed in a “workshop where machinery is used;” that the workshop was a place “wherein power-driven machinery is employed and manual labor is exercised . . . over which place the employer of the person working therein has the right of access or control,” and that he was injured “upon the premises,” it seems to us there is no escape from the conclusion that his injury is within the purview of the act.
The commission makes, as its strongest contention, the claim that it is necessary to show that the employer was engaged in some extra hazardous work or employment within the meaning of the act, either in respect to his whole business or in some department thereof, in order that an injured em
The commission raises some question as to whether Wendt at the time of his injury was acting within the scope of his employment. We think that, in attempting to turn on the electric current for the purpose of putting in motion a grindstone on which he intended to sharpen his chisel, he was clearly acting within the scope of his employment as carpenter, irrespective of the stipulated fact that he had nothing to do with the maintenance or operation of the power-driven machinery in the shop. Giving full force to that stipulation,
The last contention of the commission is that the interpretation of the act by the commission under advice from the attorney general ought to be given weight in the event that the act is of doubtful construction. It has long been the law that, where an act is uncertain or obscure, the interpretation of that governmental department having to do with its administration and enforcement is entitled to great weight. Giving full force to such a rule and recognizing it as we have in our previous decisions, it does not seem to us that, in answering the question submitted by this appeal, we find the act so uncertain or obscure as to make it proper or necessary to seek administrative interpretation in ascertaining its meaning.
The judgment of the lower court is affirmed.
Crow, C. J., Parker, and Fullerton, JJ., concur.