Summary
In Webb v. North Side Amusement Co., 298 Pa. 58 (Supreme Court of Pa., 1929), the deceased was a chauffeur for an amusement company and also a private driver for its general manager.
Summary of this case from Rumple v. Henry H. Meyer Co., Inc.Opinion
October 2, 1928.
November 25, 1929.
Workmen's compensation — Course of employment — Automobile trip — Deviation from journey.
1. In a workmen's compensation case, an award for the death of a chauffeur will be sustained as occurring within the course of his employment, where it appears that the deceased was employed by a corporation to drive an automobile owned by the company's manager, that he rendered services to both the corporation and the manager and received separate wages from each of them; that he and the manager went on a business trip for the company, and on their return home deviated to a resort for purely recreational purposes; that, after leaving the resort to return home, the deceased was killed in an accident on a part of the road between his home and the place where the business was transacted, and that this part of the road was on the most-used and possibly the shortest motor car route between these two points.
2. In such case, as the homeward trip was a necessary part of the business excursion, and as there was nothing to indicate that the journey home was not to be the final step of the business expedition, the court will not require the findings of fact to interpret the journey home as a continuation of the recreational deviation to the resort.
Before MOSCHZISKER, C. J., FRAZER, WALLING, SIMPSON, SADLER and SCHAFFER, JJ.
Appeal, No. 134, March T., 1929, by defendant, from judgment of C. P. Allegheny Co., April T., 1929, No. 1201, sustaining an award for claimant by workmen's compensation board, in case of Lillian E. Webb v. North Side Amusement Company. Affirmed.
Appeal from decision of workmen's compensation board, affirming award of referee in favor of claimant. Before MOORE, J.
The opinion of the Supreme Court states the facts.
Decision sustained. Defendant appealed.
Error assigned was judgment, quoting record.
L. Barton Ferguson, for appellant.
Franklin A. Ammon, for appellee, was not heard.
Argued October 2, 1928.
This is an appeal from a judgment affirming an award to petitioner, Lillian E. Webb, for the death of her husband, Earl C. Webb, who died as the result of injuries received in an automobile in which he was acting as chauffeur. The single question involved on this appeal is whether or not the decedent was killed in the course of his employment with the North Side Amusement Company, defendant. Webb had a dual employment; he was hired as a chauffeur by the amusement company, and as a private driver and houseman by its general manager, Nathan Friedberg. As chauffeur for the amusement company, "his duties consisted of 'extra aid,' and acting as chauffeur for the general manager, or for the manager, or going to and from the film exchange, and otherwise promoting the interests of his employer, __________ for [which] services [to the company] he was paid $20 a week. For services [rendered privately to Friedberg] Webb received $5 a week, possibly $10." The motor car used in all the work was Friedberg's.
On July 25, 1928, Friedberg, the general manager, Amdur, the assistant manager, and another, were driven by Webb to New York City in the general manager's car, — a business trip made by the two managers for the purpose of inspecting talking motion pictures with a view to later installing them in the theatre which defendant company operated. When this inspection was completed on Friday, July 27th, the party drove to Atlantic City, at Amdur's suggestion, for, — according to defendant's version, which we may accept without discussion, — purely recreational purposes. Arriving there the same day, they remained until the following Sunday evening, when Friedberg, with Webb acting as chauffeur, began the homeward journey from Atlantic City to Pittsburgh. En route both were killed. The record discloses that, very shortly before leaving Atlantic City, Friedberg directed Amdur to return to New York and close the motion picture deal.
Appellant's sole contention is summarized in his brief as follows: "The trip to Atlantic City constituted a deviation from defendant's business or employment. This operated as a suspension or abandonment of the deceased's employment with defendant. The deceased's relationship as employee of defendant was still under suspension at the time of his death, [so that] the deceased was not in the course of his employment with defendant corporation at [that] time." Appellant contends that the excursion to Atlantic City was not at an end when Webb and the general manager started homeward. In this connection it is to be noted, as pointed out in the opinion of the compensation board, that "even though Atlantic City is not on the shortest and most practicable route for a return trip [from] New York to Pittsburgh, it so happened that when the accident occurred he [Webb] was on the most-used and possibly the shortest motor car route between [those two points]." The homeward trip was a necessary part of the business excursion, and since there is nothing in the facts here presented indicating that the general manager, who was in charge of the trip, intended that the journey home be otherwise than the final step of the business expedition, we have been shown no reason which would require the finders of facts to interpret it as a continuation of the recreational deviation to Atlantic City.
The judgment is affirmed.