Case Name: ELMER E. HILL v. TERRAZZO MACHINE & SUPPLY COMPANY AND ANOTHER
Court: Minnesota Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Minnesota
Decision Date: 1968-03-15
Citations: 279 Minn. 428
Docket Number: No. 40,680
Parties: ELMER E. HILL v. TERRAZZO MACHINE & SUPPLY COMPANY AND ANOTHER.
Judges: Mr. Justice Frank T. Gallagher took no part in the consideration of decision of this case.
Reporter: Minnesota Reports
Volume: 279
Pages: 428–437

Head Matter:
ELMER E. HILL v. TERRAZZO MACHINE & SUPPLY COMPANY AND ANOTHER.
157 N. W. (2d) 374.
March 15, 1968
No. 40,680.
Carroll, Cronan, Roth & Austin and Thomas A. Foster, for relators.
Daniel B. Gallagher, for respondent.

Opinion:
Murphy, Justice.
Certiorari to review an award of the Industrial Commission. Relators urge that the referee and commission were in error in awarding compensation for injuries allegedly incurred outside the scope and course of employment.
The record would support the commission's determination that the employee, as a matter of routine and personal habit, generally arrived at his employer's place of business at approximately 6:45 a. m. to assume his duties as a drill press operator. In practice, he would punch the time clock as soon as he arrived but would not actually get paid until 7 a. m. He would then normally work until 3:30 p. m. Before beginning to operate his drill press he cleaned machines, swept the office, and emptied wastepaper baskets, often starting this work before 7 o'clock.
On January 11, 1965, he arrived at work and punched the time clock at 6:45 a. m. He was about to go to the locker room and remove his outer coat when he noticed that he had neglected to mail a card. He decided to mail it in a public mailbox on the street and, accordingly, walked out the door of the shop building, proceeding about 10 feet, and fell on snow or ice about 3 feet from the corner of the building but upon the employer's premises. He sustained a fractured hip and other injuries for which he sought, and was awarded, compensation. Relators contend that the injury occurred while the employee was engaged in a personal errand unrelated to his employment and that he is, therefore, not entitled to compensation.
Minn. St. 176.011, subd. 16, provides in part:
" 'Personal injury' means injury arising out of and in the course of employment ; but does not cover an employee except while engaged in, on, or about the premises where his services require his presence as a part of such service at the time of the injury and during the hours of such service."
We have repeatedly said that the language of the Workmen's Compensation Act is to be given a broad and liberal construction. Olson v. Trinity Lodge, 226 Minn. 141, 32 N. W. (2d) 255. It is unnecessary to sort out and categorize the numerous decisions of this court as they relate to the terms "arising out of" and "in the course of employment" as they bear upon the causal connection between employment and injury. "As applied in some factual situations , the two concepts are so closely interwoven that an attempt to adhere to technical distinctions serves little purpose." Lange v. Minneapolis-St. Paul Metropolitan Airports Comm. 257 Minn. 54, 56, 99 N. W. (2d) 915, 917. Since it is contended that the accident occurred outside of worldng hours and while employee was engaged in a personal activity, we must concern ourselves with the application of the last part of the statute, which provides that the employee is protected "while engaged in, on, or about the premises where his services require his presence as a part of such service" and "during the hours of such service." It is conceded here that the accident occurred on the employer's premises, but it is denied that it occurred at the place of employment and during the time when the employee was required to perform services under the employment contract. We have in innumerable authorities discussed varying situations wherein an employee was either allowed or denied compensation where this issue was presented. The authorities are gathered and discussed in the more recent cases of Johannsen v. Acton Const. Co. Inc. 264 Minn. 540, 119 N. W. (2d) 826, and Blattner v. Loyal Order of Moose, 264 Minn. 79, 117 N. W. (2d) 570. Our approach to the issue of whether the injury arose as a part of the service or during the hours of service has been guided by Novack v. Montgomery Ward & Co. 158 Minn. 495, 198 N. W. 290, and Simonson v. Knight, 174 Minn. 491, 219 N. W. 869, two of the early and leading decisions which express the spirit and policy of the Workmen's Compensation Act.
The Simonson case involved a petition for compensation by a restaurant employee who customarily entered the place of employment through the back door. While on her way to work she fell in an open excavation located in the rear of the employer's premises and sustained the injury for which compensation was sought. We there held that the Industrial Commission was in error in holding that the injury occurred before the employee had reached the working premises. We pointed out that an injury to a workman might be compensable even if the workman is not actually working at the time of the injury. We said (174 Minn. 493, 219 N. W. 870):
" pjjg controlling idea is that the hazard is localized on and peculiar to the place of employment rather than detached therefrom and so generalized to the community at large."
The decision emphasized that the statute is not to be given a restricted construction and that the hours of service "include the period of reasonably prompt ingress and egress while still upon the immediate premises." We further noted, "Many an industrial accident, arising from a cause peculiar to the employment, occurs just outside the time of actual labor and at a moment not within the period covered by the victim's wages; yet it arises out of and because of the employment." 174 Minn. 494, 219 N. W. 870. In stressing that a compensable accident may occur either before or after the actual time for which the employee is paid, we said (174 Minn. 495, 219 N. W. 870):
" So, although their day of wages and actual work may not have commenced or may have ended, what is real service has begun or continues; and an accident happening at such time may be said to be in the hours of service."
These principles have been consistently followed by the decisions of this court and applied with varying results, depending upon the particular facts in each case. As applied to the facts before us, it may be said that the commission could well find that the workman was injured on the employer's premises at a time after his services began. It may further be observed, in passing, that if the workman had fallen at the same place as he was entering the premises on his way to work, the compensability of his injury would be controlled by Simonson v. Knight, supra, and the determination of the Industrial Commission would undoubtedly be right. The question presented here is whether the workman took himself out of the protection of the act by momentarily leaving his employment and using the few minutes left before actual work began to go out to the street to place a letter in the mailbox.
In Falkum v. Daniel Starch & Staff, 271 Minn. 277, 135 N. W. (2d) 693, we affirmed the determination of the Industrial Commission that an employee of a business research consultant firm, who was injured in a car accident in the parking lot of a supermarket after she had finished her day's work, was not covered by workmen's compensation. We held that there was sufficient evidence to sustain the finding that although she was employed and paid on a "portal to portal basis" the fact that she had deviated to shop at the market was such a departure from her employment as to remove her from the protection of the act. On the other hand, in Blattner v. Loyal Order of Moose, supra, we affirmed the commission's decision that an employee injured while leaving the premises of his employer an hour after his work had been completed was within the protection of the Workmen's Compensation Act.
More pertinent to the fact situation presented here are those authorities which relate to injuries occurring to employees while engaged in activities in the nature of a deviation from the strict course of duties which they are hired to perform, where such deviations are in the interests of the employees' personal comfort and convenience. In Kaletha v. Hall Merc. Co. 157 Minn. 290, 294, 196 N. W. 261, 262, where an employee, pausing in his work, lit a cigarette, as a result of which an accident occurred causing him to be severely burned, we said:
"The procuring of food or other refreshments by an employe, although personal in character, is considered so far incidental to the employe's work, that injuries received while procuring such food and refreshments may be found to arise out of and in the course of the employment; provided the employe acts in a reasonable and prudent manner, and the injuries occur while he is upon the employer's premises or is subject, as an employe, to the employer's control."
In McKenzie v. Railway Exp. Agency, Inc. 205 Minn. 231, 285 N. W. 529, an employee, while seeking protection from the cold, entered a baggage car where he was exposed to hazards which caused his injuries. We affirmed an award of compensation there over the: conten tions of the employer that the accident occurred on premises not under the control of the employer and during a time when the employee had departed from his line of duty for personal convenience and desires which were not incident to the employment. We have held that injuries occurring off the employer's premises during a regular lunch hour may arise in the course of employment even though the interval is technically outside the regular hours of employment in the sense that the worker receives no pay for that time and is in no degree under the control of the employer, being free to go where he pleases. Johannsen v. Acton Const. Co. Inc. supra; cf. Krause v. Swartwood, 174 Minn. 147, 218 N. W. 555, 57 A. L. R. 611.
It seems to be well established that acts of an employee necessary to life, comfort, or convenience while at work, although personal to him and not technically acts of service, are incidental to the service, and an injury arising while in the performance of such acts is compensable. 1 Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law, § 19.63; 99 C. J. S., Workmen's Compensation, § 220; Maheux v. Cove-Craft, Inc. 103 N. H. 71, 164 A. (2d) 574; Harlow's Case, 345 Mass. 765, 186 N. E. (2d) 925; Bator's Case, 338 Mass. 104, 153 N. E. (2d) 765.
We conclude that, on the basis of the record before us, the incident out of which the injuries arose was not a departure from work but a minor interruption from work which might reasonably be expected in the course of a day's activities. It is only realistic to say that a workman does not move mechanically in precise and definite work patterns, and it may be expected that he will from time to time perform acts which are not necessarily in the nature of service to the employer. We conclude that since the conduct from which the injuries arose was such as reasonably might be expected, and since it was not expressly forbidden, it was not such a departure from the course of his service or the performance of his duties as to deprive him of the benefits of the compensation act.
Affirmed.