291 Mass. 334 | Mass. | 1935
The decedent George H. Wright was killed in the State of Vermont by the overturning of a tractor which he was driving in the course of his employment in connection with some logging operations there carried on by the Harris Ice Company, Inc., a Massachusetts corporation which was engaged in the ice business in Leominster in this Commonwealth.
The Harris Ice Company, Inc., was insured under the Massachusetts workmen’s compensation act, G. L. (Ter. Ed.) c. 152. The policy contained a number of possibly contradictory indorsements referring to the compensation acts both of Massachusetts and of Vermont, but it is unnecessary to discuss these in detail, as it is not disputed that the company was a subscriber as to its business in Massachusetts and that its contract of employment with Wright was made here. It follows that the employee’s dependents have as against the insurer all the rights which the Massachusetts act gives them, whatever limitations are written in the policy (Cox’s Case, 225 Mass. 220; Shannon’s Case, 274 Mass. 92), including extraterritorial rights (Pederzoli’s Case, 269 Mass. 550; McLaughlin’s Case, 274 Mass. 217; Migues’s Case, 281 Mass. 373; G. L. [Ter. Ed.] c. 152, § 26), unless the business carried on by the ice company in Vermont was a separate and distinct business from that which was insured in Massachusetts. Pallotta’s Case, 251 Mass. 153. Anderson’s Case, 276 Mass. 51. See Pederzoli’s Case, 269 Mass. 550, 553.
The Industrial Accident Board has adopted the finding of the single member that the work which the employee did in Vermont was “incidental to his principal work . . . in Massachusetts.” Under the circumstances of this case, this finding means that the employer’s business in Vermont was not a separate and distinct business from that insured in Massachusetts. The question is whether the evidence will support the finding.
There was evidence tending to show the following: In
We think the evidence will support the finding. The ice business is largely seasonal. It may be of decided advantage to one engaged in it to keep his working crew together by furnishing to those who - need it in the winter months work of a kind which they are probably well suited to perform. Operations in ice and in lumber would complement each other and together would constitute a single year around business, carried on by the same corporation under one management and control and largely with the same
As the claimant has not appealed, she is not entitled to raise the question whether compensation should have been allowed on account of the posthumous child of the deceased for the period after the death of Wright and before the birth of the child.
Decree affirmed.