45 A.2d 261 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1945
Submitted December 13, 1945. Claimant in this workmen's compensation case sustained an accidental injury on property owned by defendant, while on his way to work. The Workmen's Compensation Board affirmed the referee's order of disallowance, and the court of common pleas dismissed claimant's appeal. The appeal to this court followed.
The undisputed facts are that defendant provided a parking lot for the use of its employees. The parking lot did not adjoin defendant's plant, which was surrounded by a fence and policed by guards. It was separated from the plant by a public highway. Claimant went to work on February 3, 1943, as a passenger in an automobile of a co-worker. They arrived at the parking lot about 6:40 a.m. Claimant alighted from the automobile and started to walk across the parking lot. While lighting his pipe, and before reaching the street, he slipped and fell on *450 ice covered by snow. The fall caused a fracture of his left leg in two places.
The question arises whether at the time of claimant's injury section 301 of the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1915, as reënacted and amended by the Act of June 21, 1939, P.L. 520, § 1,
We have frequently said that there is a distinction between "premises" of the employer and "property" of the employer, and that they are not always synonymous. The term "premises" has a narrower meaning than the term "property," when used in compensation cases. Shickley v. Philadelphia Reading Coal Iron Co.,
Claimant relies principally upon Tolan v. Philadelphia Reading Coal Iron Co.,
In the present case it is obvious that the parking lot was not a part of the operating business; it was distinct therefrom and separated from defendant's plant by a public thoroughfare. See Molek v. W.J. Rainey, Inc., supra,
We agree with the conclusion of the court below that under the particular facts of the instant case the parking lot was not so connected with defendant's business or its *453
operating premises as to form an integral part thereof; and that accordingly the accident caused by the condition of the parking lot did not occur on the premises of the employer within the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act, § 301 of the Act of 1915, as reënacted and amended by the Act of June 21, 1939, P.L. 520, § 1,
Judgment for defendant is affirmed.