Court Opinion

ID: 9699098
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-25 20:10:30.975186+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:20:46.456788
License: Public Domain

PER Curiam
(on motion for rehearing). Counsel for Lefeber Building Corporation, the owner, assert that the window ledge, the place where the accident occurred, was not a place of employment for the purpose of imposing a duty upon the owner. The city, while not moving for rehearing, has asserted that the window ledge was not a place of employment as to the city. Both base their contention upon the fact that the window ledge was appurtenant to the city offices; the city was performing governmental functions in its offices, and therefore such offices are not a place of employment within the meaning of secs. 101.01 (1) and 101.06, Stats.
We did say at page 220 of the opinion filed February 2, 1960, that it may be doubted that the portion of the building where plaintiff was at work (the window ledge) is a public building within the meaning of the safe-place statute because not used by the public. We have no doubt, however, that the building as a whole constituted a public building.
The orders of the industrial commission quoted in the opinion are expressly applicable to “window cleaners in public buildings” and the present arguments of Lefeber Building Corporation and the city must mean that the commission had no power to make such an order applicable to public buildings unless the premises were also places of employment.
Perhaps it could be argued, as a matter of original statutory interpretation, that a window ledge outside the quarters occupied by a governmental body or charity is not, under the statute, part of a public building to which the public has access. We think, however, that any doubt on this score must be resolved by deference to the commission’s administrative interpretation embodied in the safety orders referred to.
*224cSec. 101.09, Stats., vests the commission with supervision of every employment, place of employment, and public building as may be necessary adequately to enforce and administer all laws requiring them to be safe, and requiring the protection of the life, health, safety, and welfare of every employee in such employment or place of employment. Sec. 101.10 (4) and (5) authorize the commission to fix reasonable standards for safety devices for places of employment, and for construction of places of employment and public buildings so as to render them safe. Consequently, in performing its duties, the commission is forced to determine whether its jurisdiction extends to certain portions of public buildings, and in doubtful situations its determination is entitled to weight. It has evidently determined that the window ledges of public buildings are parts of public buildings over which it has jurisdiction, and to which its safety orders are applicable when window cleaners are employed on such ledges. This is on the theory that independently employed window washers are part of the public.
Therefore, the city may be held liable for breach of such safety orders because it is in control of a public building, although as a municipal corporation it might not be held liable as an employer. Hoepner v. Eau Claire (1953), 264 Wis. 608, 60 N. W. (2d) 392.
In moving for rehearing, Lefeber Building Corporation submits that under the facts of the case it has no duties prescribed by the safe-place statute because the place where the accident occurred was not a “place of employment” as defined by sec. 101.01 (1), Stats., which reads:
“The phrase 'place of employment’ means and includes every place, whether indoors or out or underground and the premises appurtenant thereto where either temporarily or permanently any industry, trade, or business is carried on, *224dor where any process or operation, directly or indirectly related to any industry, trade or business, is carried on, and where any person is, directly or indirectly, employed by another for direct or indirect gain or profit, . . .”
The accident occurred at that part of the Lefeber Building, or was appurtenant thereto, which the corporation had leased to the city for city purposes.
This respondent cites Cross v. Leuenberger (1954), 267 Wis. 232, 65 N. W. (2d) 35, 66 N. W. (2d) 168. That case held on demurrer that a complaint alleging that a defendant owned and managed an apartment building was not a sufficient allegation that this constituted a carrying on of a business within the statute now in question. But we said there that allegations of additional facts might establish that the apartment house was operated as a business.
Such additional facts are here in evidence. We take judicial notice of the articles of incorporation of Lefeber Building Corporation recorded in the office of the secretary of state. The articles recite that “the business and purpose of such corporation [is] to own, hold, . . . operate, . . . lease, . . . manage or otherwise deal in . . . real estate . . .” etc., etc. The corporation owns the place of the accident, this building. For gain or profit it leases, operates and manages space in it, including space to the city. By the corporation’s own declaration this is its business.
The corporation’s lease to the city obliges the corporation to heat the space leased to the city, to maintain the heating and plumbing systems in good condition, and permits the corporation to enter the premises to inspect and to make necessary repairs, which can be performed only by employing natural persons. We consider that in so far as the corporation is presently concerned the corporation’s description of its business and its own activities in its business makes the entire building a “place of employment.”
*224eWe recognize that governmental functions as carried on in the demised premises do not constitute carrying on business, Flynn v. Chippewa County (1944), 244 Wis. 455, 12 N. W. (2d) 683, and, as these issues affect the city, the city office is not a place of employment within the definition of sec. 101.01(1), Stats. In Waldman v. Young Men’s Christian Asso. (1938), 227 Wis. 43, 46, 47, 277 N. W. 632, the Y. M. C. A. did not carry on a business in that part of its building. But Lefeber Building Corporation’s business regarding the offices which it leases to the city, for which the corporation charges and collects rent, is the same as in renting the other stores and offices in its building. The corporation is to be judged by its business — what the corporation does with this space in its building — and not alone by whether the tenant does or does not use the demised space for carrying on its trade, industry, or business.
Sec. 101.06, Stats., and the orders of the industrial commission, set forth in the original opinion, required employers to provide approved safety devices and safeguards. Alternate devices are allowed and among the alternates are attachments for safety belts, which attachments shall be permanent and firmly attached to the window frame or the building proper. As such they would be incident to the construction and maintenance of the place of employment or public building. While other forms of safety devices could have been substituted no equally efficient alternatives were provided by anyone. In the absence of all such safety devices the building, and particularly the portion of the building involved in this accident, was deficient in construction and maintenance which is a breach of the duty of the owner “to construct, repair, or maintain such place of employment ... as to render the same safe,” and we adhere to our decision that under sec. 101.06, Lefeber Building Corporation was responsible as owner of the place of employment for providing permanent *224ffasteners unless other required protective devices were furnished.
The city made no motion for rehearing, although it filed a brief which it designates as one “on motion for rehearing.” The only motion on file is that of Lefeber Building Corporation. It asked only that the judgment of the trial court with respect to that corporation be affirmed.
The motion is denied with $25 costs.