California Compensation & Fire Co. v. Workmen's Compensation Appeals Board

MOSK, J.

Mrs. Lillian A. Schick, while performing duties for her employer, was shot and killed by her former husband, Carl Schick. The Workmen’s Compensation Appeals Board (hereinafter board) found that Mrs. Schick’s fatal injuries were sustained in the course of and arose out of her employ

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ment, and awarded compensation to her dependent daughter. The insurance carrier for the employer (petitioner), contending that the assault did not arise out of her employment because it was motivated by a personal grievance, seeks review of the board’s decision.

A manufacturer of table pads employed Mrs. Schick to measure customers’ tables for the purpose of fabricating pads of suitable dimensions. The pads were purchased by customers through a retail store, which would call the employer when a customer wished to place an order, and the employer would send Mrs. Schick to the home of the purchaser to take measurements.

The principals in this tragedy were divorced in 1962. In 1965, Schick learned that Mrs. Schick planned to remarry, and he threatened to kill her and commit suicide. Diabolically scheming to effectuate his threats, he rented an apartment under an assumed name, and on April 8, 1965, telephoned a department store to order a table pad, requesting that someone be sent to measure his table. The store relayed the request to Mrs. Schick’s employer, who sent her to the apartment at an arranged time. When she appeared at the door Schick shot her and thereafter committed suicide.

The board found that Mrs. Schick’s death arose out of her employment because “the employment contributed to . . . [her] death by placing her in an isolated location and thereby facilitating her ex-husband’s assault upon her.” It continued: “ [H]ad her husband attempted to accomplish his purpose in a more public location, there was a chance that a rescuer might have intervened in her behalf. In view of the elaborate plans that were made to lure decedent to an isolated location it is apparent that decedent’s husband recognized this possibility. ’ ’

It is not controverted that the assault upon Mrs. Schick was perpetrated while she was in the course of her employment. Petitioner insists, however, that because Schick was motivated by personal ill will not directed against his ex-wife as an employee or because of her employment, her death cannot be said to arise out of her employment, i.e., that the law should look solely to the underlying motivation for an assault in order to determine whether the injury arose out of the employment and that if the motive of the person causing the injury is solely personal in nature, it cannot be said to arise out of the employment.