Opinion
279 A.D. 1125 112 N.Y.S.2d 525 In the Matter of the Claim of ALICE L. WILTROUT, Respondent, v. GENERAL ELECTRIC REALTY CORPORATION et al., Appellants. WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION BOARD, Respondent. Supreme Court of New York, Third Department. May 14, 1952
This is an appeal by an employer and its insurance carrier from an award of death benefits to the widow and minor children of the deceased employee. The employer was a real estate holding company. It employed the decedent in the capacity of a construction auditor. His duties required him to spend from one third to one half of his time in traveling to various cities throughout the United States where he attended and participated in conferences affecting construction jobs and contracts undertaken by his employer. On December 2, 1946, decedent left on a trip to Detroit, Michigan, and to Boston, Massachusetts, under an itinerary given to him by his employer. He was directed to arrive in Boston on December 3d to attend a conference on one of the employer's projects. Rooms were reserved for the decedent and for the employer's other representatives at the Parker House Hotel in Boston for the night of December 3d. Decedent arrived at the hotel at about 10:15 P.M., on the night of December 3d and was assigned to a room on the fourth floor of the hotel. Later in the evening he conferred with his superior and a group of coemployees who were awaiting his arrival. After having some drinks at the hotel, the party went out for some additional refreshments and food. While thus engaged these employees discussed various phases of the conference which was to be held on the following day. Between 2:00 and 2:30 A.M., decedent and his coemployees returned to the hotel and it was agreed that they would meet at 8:15 on the following morning for breakfast. It is undisputed that none of these employees was intoxicated when they returned to the hotel. Decedent was last seen getting off the elevator on the fourth floor of the hotel. The decedent failed to meet his coemployees on the morning of December 4th and later his body was found in the courtyard directly beneath an open window of his room. As a result of falling from this window the decedent sustained multiple injuries resulting in his death. There is proof in the record that decedent was on duty twenty-four hours of the day. The board found that the injuries sustained by the decedent arose out of and in the course of his employment and in our view the evidence sustains that finding ( Matter of Comr. of Taxations&s Finance v. Katherine Gibbs School, 277 A.D. 126, motion for leave to appeal denied 301 N.Y. 813; Matter of Blake v. Grand Union Co., 277 A.D. 914, motion for leave to appeal denied 301 N.Y. 813). Award unanimously affirmed, with costs to the Workmen's Compensation Board.
Present--Foster, P. J., Heffernan, Brewster, Bergan and Coon, JJ.