Court Opinion

ID: 9670743
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-24 03:24:52.777755+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:16:06.233089
License: Public Domain

HEFLIN, Chief Justice
(dissenting):
The crux of the majority opinion in holding that the accident did not arise out ■of the course of the employment is expressed in the following language:
“In the present case the danger incurred by the employee in going on a personal mission was in no wise connected with his employment nor was the danger incidental to the character of his employment, but was wholly independent of the employment relationship.”
With this I differ.
It seems to me that when an employer pays an employee for a thirty-minute lunch break and allows the employee to go wherever he wants to eat his lunch, but requires-he be on call during the lunch period, that this contractual relationship between the two makes the lunch break a part of the employment relationship.
In Gilmore v. Rust Engineering Co., 289 Ala. 46, 265 So.2d 591, this court wrote:
“As a general rule, accidents occurring while an employee is traveling to and from work are not considered ‘arising out of and in the course of his employment’. Barnett v. Britling Cafeteria Co., 225 Ala. 462, 143 So. 813; Sloss-Sheffield Steel & Iron Company v. Thomas, 220 Ala. 686, 127 So. 165; 99 C.J.S. Workmen’s Compensation § 232. However, exceptions have been carved out of this general rule. One applies when such transportation constitutes a part of the consideration paid to the employee for his services. * * * ” (Emphasis added.)
In Ammons v. McClendon, 263 Ala. 651, 652, 83 So.2d 239, 240 (1955), it was stated as follows:
“As to whether or not McClendon was where his service required his presence as a part of such service at the time of the accident and during the hours of service as a workman, within the meaning of subsec. (j), supra, depends upon the effect to be accorded his transportation to and from work in the truck. If by contract, express or implied, the transportation constituted a part of the consideration paid or to be paid Mc-Clendon for his services, then, in that *641event, the mutual duties of employer and employee were being performed at the time McClendon was killed and the workmen’s compensation laws would be applicable. If, on the other hand, the transportation did not constitute a part of his contract of employment, the workmen’s conpensation law has no application. Blair v. Greene, 247 Ala. 104, 22 So.2d 834.” (Emphasis added.)
While the last two quoted cases deal with accidents occurring while the employee is traveling to or from work, the rationale which makes such accidents compensable is applicable to the case at bar. That rationale may be stated as follows: If the accident arose out of activities contemplated by the employment contract, whether express or implied, the resulting injuries are compensable. If a paid lunch break with freedom to travel constitutes a part of the consideration paid to the employee for his services, then accidents occurring during that period, whether on or off the premises, should be compensable for the same reason that accidents occurring while traveling to and from work are compensable; that reason being that both are a part of the contractual relationship. If by contract, express or implied, a part of the consideration paid the employee was for time taken by the employee for a lunch break, then the mutual duties of the employer and employee were being performed at the time of the accident. In the case under review the paid lunch break was singled out for special consideration just as transportation was in Ammons. Because of the contractual relationship, express or implied, which allowed the employee to leave the premises to eat his lunch and to receive compensation for the time spent in connection therewith, I would hold that the accident arose out of his employment.
There is another reason for my dissent. The majority opinion holds and admits that Blackmon’s accident arose while in the course of his employment. It is clear from the quoted portion of Massey v. U. S. Steel Corp., 264 Ala. 227, 86 So.2d 375, that “in the course of his employment” refers to the time, place, and circumstances under which the accident took place. Therefore there is no question concerning the place of the accident.
I feel the accident arose out of the course of his employment. In applying our law (as quoted in the majority opinion from Massey v. U. S. Steel Corp., supra) to the evidence in this case it is only necessary to establish that the accident arose out of the employment to show that the employment was the cause and source of the accident. This can be determined by ascertaining whether acts of an employee which are of assistance to himself, such as quenching his thirst or relieving his hunger, form a part of his services to his employer. Stated another way, does his eating of a meal within the hours of employment contribute to the furtherance of his work. Stated another way, are meals within the hours of employment incidents to his employment.
These questions have already been answered by an appellate court in this jurisdiction. An injury sustained by an employee during his mealtime break when an explosion resulted from a flame running from the fire he had made to heat coffee to a can of fuel oil was held compensable under Alabama’s Workmen’s Compensation Act in Wells v. Morris, 33 Ala.App. 497, 35 So.2d 54 (1948). The Court of Appeals of Alabama in Wells recognized the distinction between the phrases “in the course of” and “arising out of”, stating that the latter phrase “refers to employment as the cause and source of the injury”. The court went on to hold that the employee’s injury did arise out of his employment, stating:
“In this case the plaintiff, because of his remoteness in the woods at the lunch hour and the limited time of the lunch period, had no choice as a practical matter but to eat in the woods where he was *642working. Such a situation not only suggested but invited the heating of coffee to accompany the eating under such circumstances. His employment was therefore a contributing cause to the injury he sustained, and the injury was reasonably related to his employment.”
This same issue, i. e., whether acts of an employee which are of assistance to himself form a part of his services to his employer, has also been answered in the affirmative by other jurisdictions. In Dzikowska v. Superior Steel Co., 259 Pa. 578, 103 A. 351 (1918), the plaintiff’s deceased husband, Dzikowska, was engaged in loading steel upon a railroad car for his employer, the defendant. He had loaded all of the steel at hand, and, while waiting for the arrival of more steel, stepped out of the shipping room, in which he had been working, and went into a box car to smoke. His clothing, which was saturated with oil from the steel he had been loading, caught fire from the match he had struck to light his cigarette, and he was fatally injured. The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in holding that the injury was compensable, quoted with approval from 1 Honnold on Workmen’s Compensation, § 111, as follows:
“ * * * Acts of ministration by a servant to himself, such as quenching his thirst, relieving his hunger, protecting himself from excessive cold, performance of which while at work are reasonably necessary to his health and comfort, are incidents to his employment and acts of service therein within the Workmen’s Compensation Acts, though they are only indirectly conducive to the purpose of the employment. Consequently no break in the employment is caused by the mere fact that the workman is ministering to his personal comforts or necessities, as by warming himself, or seeking shelter, or by leaving his work to relieve nature, or to procure drink, refreshments, food, or fresh air, or to rest in the shade.”
A similar factual situation was presented to the. Supreme Court of California in Whiting-Mead Commercial Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission, 178 Cal. 505, 173 P. 1105 (1918), wherein it was stated:
“Such acts as are necessary to the life, comfort, and convenience of the servant while at work, though strictly personal to himself, and not acts of service, are incidental to the service, and injury sustained in the performance thereof is deemed to have arisen out of the employment. A man must breathe and occasionally drink water while at work. In these and other conceivable instances he ministers unto himself, but in a remote sense these acts contribute to the furtherance of his work. * * * That such acts will be done in the course of employment is necessarily contemplated, and they are inevitable incidents. Such dangers as attend them, therefore, are incident dangers. At the same time injuries occasioned by them are accidents resulting from the employment.”
Again in the case of Archibald v. Ott, 77 W.Va. 448, 87 S.E. 791 (1916), the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia held the acts of an employee for his own assistance to be a part of his services to his employer, stating:
“Such acts as are necessary to the life, comfort, and convenience of the servant while at work, though strictly personal to himself, and not acts of service, are incidental to the service, and injury sustained in the performance thereof is deemed to have arisen out of the employment. A man must breathe and occasionally drink water while at work. In these and other conceivable instances he ministers unto himself, but in a remote sense these acts contribute to the furtherance of the work.”
This proposition is supported by a number of other cases, including Holland-St. Louis *643Sugar Co. v. Shraluka, 64 Ind.App. 545, 116 N.E. 330 (1917); In re Borin, 227 Mass. 452, 116 N.E. 817 (1917) ; In re Osterbrink, 229 Mass. 407, 118 N.E. 657 (Mass.1918); Racine Rubber Co. v. Industrial Commission, 165 Wis. 600, 162 N.W. 664 (1917); Haller v. City of Lansing, 195 Mich. 753, 162 N.W. 335 (1917); Northwestern Iron Co. v. Industrial Commission, 160 Wis. 633, 152 N.W. 416 (1915) ; Zabriskie v. Erie R. Co., 86 N.J.L. 266, 92 A. 385 (1914) ; Brooklyn Mining Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission, 172 Cal. 774, 159 P. 162 (1916); Vennen v. New Dells Lumber Co., 161 Wis. 370, 154 N.W. 640 (1915).
The majority has distinguished the Wells case on the ground that the injury in Wells occurred while the employee was on the premises of his employer, whereas the injury sustained by petitioner-appelleeplaintiff in the instant case occurred away from the employer’s premises. I see no valid reason for this distinction. If acts of ministration by an employee to himself while on the premises of his employer are considered a part of his services to his employer, why, then, should not the same acts when performed off the employer’s premises, not only with the consent, but at the expense, of the employer, be considered in the same light. The acts are of no less assistance to the employee in performing his services to his employer when done off the premises. The geographical area in which the acts of ministration are performed does not affect.their value to the employee or to the employer, even if the value be indirect to the employer. Besides, the place of the employment is material only to the issue of whether the accident “arose in” the course of the employment and not as to whether or not the accident “arose out” of the employment.
I, therefore, respectfully dissent.
MADDOX, J., concurs in the foregoing dissent.