Court Opinion

ID: 9624401
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 07:01:59.387153+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T11:53:02.085662
License: Public Domain

CARTER, J.
I dissent.
By its decision here the majority has completed the reactionary process, commenced by its decision in California Shipbuilding Corp. v. Industrial Acc. Com., 31 Cal.2d 278 [188 P.2d 32], and carried forward by its decisions in Mercer-Fraser Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com., ante, p. 102 [251 P.2d 955] and Sutter Butte Canal Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com., ante, p. 139 [251 P.2d 975], of judicial repeal of the workmen’s compensation law that an award shall be increased for wilful misconduct of the employer. (Lab. Code, § 4553.) I reiterate what I said in my dissents in those eases. The lethal blow has now been struck and section 4553 of the Labor Code has been nullified and stricken from the statute book by judicial interpretation. By these decisions this court has blotted out four decades of progress in the field of social legislation for the benefit of the working men and women of this state, and overruled numerous decisions of this court and the District Court of Appeal without even mentioning them.
The majority opinion holds that neither the findings nor the evidence establishes serious and wilful misconduct.
*666With reference to the findings, they are clearly sufficient under the authorities cited in my dissent in Mercer-Fraser Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com., supra, ante, p. 129. They expressly state that the general superintendent of the employer knew that his failure to provide safety devices was likely to result in serious injury. While it is also found that he should have had that knowledge, that in no way detracts from the finding of actual knowledge.
Briefly, the facts are that the employer maintained an extremely dangerous condition of its property, that is, a railway crossing which must be crossed by its employees, and had taken no steps to protect the employees against that peril. I say it took no steps because the evidence shows that the steps it did take were so completely ineffectual as to be no protection whatsoever. Moreover, one of the steps taken, the presence of the signal light to warn of an approaching train, went beyond being ineffectual; it operated as a pitfall and trap for the employees inasmuch as it was operated sometimes and not others. All these conditions the employer knew of, yet it did nothing to correct them.
A witness, Amaro, testified that three days before the applicant employee was injured, he was engaged in the same work, and while driving a lift truck across the railroad tracks, barely escaped being struck by a train. He told Spiegel, the employer’s representative in charge, of his near injury and that the signal light should be fixed so as to turn on automatically when a train was approaching because “you couldn’t see the train when you came out of the door” to cross the tracks, that is, in effect, that none of the employer’s devices served to safeguard against the peril; that a watchman or flagman should be put on the crossing. A mirror was placed by the employer at the door the same day of Amaro’s near injury purportedly to give an operator of the lift truck a view of approaching trains but it only gave a view 20 feet down the tracks. He saw the employer’s superintendent at the crossing after the signal lights were installed and it may be inferred that the latter knew that they operated only sporadically when someone happened to operate them. It was not customary for the truck drivers to stop at the crossing because their work load was heavy. This was also known to the superintendent.
A representative of the employer testified he knew there was a train operating on the crossing at the time of the accident and that no one was operating the stop lights.
*667Summarizing, the evidence shows that there was here a very dangerous railroad crossing that must be continually traversed by the employees. Its danger was apparent to anyone from a view of the physical facts. The employer knew of that danger prior to the accident because it had placed lights to signal the approach of a train and had a man to operate them during the busier times and because its superintendent was specifically advised by an employee, who had a “close call,” of the danger and that none of the devices gave effective protection. In the face of that knowledge the employer failed to do anything about it—permitted its employees to bear the risk of this very real hazard. Certainly it is wholly reasonable to draw an inference that its conduct was in reckless disregard of its employees’ welfare. Indeed, its conduct amounts to intentionally subjecting its employees to injury, and this condition was permitted to exist solely because protection would cost the employer money. In the face of the foregoing facts which the record discloses without contradiction, the majority opinion states: “The evidence and the findings of the commission do not show that the employer had the knowledge of the consequences of its act or omission necessary to make the performance of that act or omission a wilful one. . . . Looking at the record it is devoid of any substantial evidence that the employer intended to do harm, or that it had actual knowledge of the probable consequences of its failure to provide more adequate safety devices or a safer place to work or that it exercised an affirmative and knowing disregard for the safety of the injured employee.” I cannot reconcile the foregoing statements with an honest analysis of the record in this ease. It is undisputed that during the so-called busy season, the employer maintained a watchman at the crossing to guard against such accidents as the one here involved. The employer, therefore, knew that the crossing was a dangerous one and that safety measures must be taken to guard against accidents of this character. The only satisfactory safety measure which had been employed was the maintenance of a watchman or an employee to manually operate the blinker lights. This safety measure was abandoned by the employer during the nonbusy season although the risk was just as great to the employee during the nonbusy season as during the busy season. In the face of this factual background may it be said with the slightest regard for the truth, that “The evidence and the findings of the commission do not show that the employer had the knowledge of the consequences of its act or *668omission necessary to make the performance of that act or omission a wilful one,” or that “the record is devoid of any substantial evidence that the employer . . . had’ actual knowledge of the probable consequences of its failure to provide more adequate safety devices or a safer place to work or that it exercised an affirmative and knowing disregard for the safety of the injured employee.”
I am constrained to repeat a statement hereinabove made, that the only reason this hazardous condition was permitted to exist was solely because the maintenance of an adequate safety measure would cost the employer money. The Legislature by its enactment of section 4553 of the Labor Code sought to correct this evil, but the majority of this court, solicitous only of the financial welfare of the employer, says no, it is too great a burden for the employer to bear. So we are back where we were 40 years ago so far as the enforcement of safety regulations is concerned.
It is the old story of the will of the people and the Legislature being defeated by reactionary court decisions. To protect employees against unnecessary risks, the Legislature enacts a law providing that an employer must provide a safe place for his employees to perform their work, and that failure to do so constitutes wilful misconduct on the part of the employer entitling an employee injured thereby to an increased award of compensation. Obviously such a law tends to create increased vigilance on the part of employers to provide safety devices and thus reduce the number of industrial injuries. There can be no doubt that the present law has had a salutary effect. Its nullification by this court is not only a travesty on social justice but an insidious abuse of judicial power.
I would affirm the award here made.
Respondents’ petition for a rehearing was denied May 7, 1953. Carter, J., was of the opinion that the petition should be granted.