Chick v. Industrial Accident Commission

VAN DYKE, J.

This is a proceeding in certiorari to review awards of the Industrial Accident Commission whereby there was granted to Ira M. Rowell and Otto Sehuek additional compensation because they were found by the commission to have been injured by reason of the serious and wilful misconduct of their employer. The employer was engaged in constructing a steel arch bridge with concrete deck over the Smith River in Del Norte County. The steel work had been completed and the employer was engaged in laying the deck. This was being done progressively a section at a time. The sections were called bays and when a bay was completed the forms used in constructing it were stripped off and the material used in constructing the next bay. In order to conduct this stripping operation the employer made use of a suspended platform underhanging the bridge at a distance of about 4 feet. Below the platform at the time these workmen were injured was a drop of about 60 feet to the bed of the river. At the time of the injury the platform failed and the men had been catapulted into the river, receiving injuries. There was at no time any dispute concerning their right to compensation, but the men applied to the commission for an award of added compensation. Hearings were conducted at which a great deal of evidence was taken and the commission’s referee recommended that the application for added compensation be denied, as he found that the men had failed to prove the basis of their claims therefor. He absolved the employer from the charge made. His findings and recommendation for denial of further award went before a panel of the commission which followed his recommendations and entered findings denying the added compensation applied for. The panel granted a petition for rehearing. Upon reconsideration findings were adopted upholding the contentions of the men that they were injured by reason of the serious and wilful misconduct of the employer in that the employer through its general superintendent knowingly and wilfully failed to furnish a safe

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place of employment, did knowingly and wilfully fail to use means and methods reasonably required to render the place of employment safe and did knowingly and wilfully permit the men to go and be in an unsafe place of employment. More specifically, the commission found that at the time of injury the employer, through its general superintendent, knew or should have known had it turned its mind to the fact that the combined weight of stripped materials and men engaged in stripping operations, plus the weight of the platform, exceeded the load, weight, and stress bearing capacity of the platform, thus making the prosecution of the work dangerous to life, limb and safety; that the employer knew or should have known had it turned its mind to the fact that the load, weight and stress bearing capacity of the platform was insufficient to sustain this combined weight; that the employer also knowingly and wilfully failed to exercise the degree of prudence and caution which it would have exercised had it turned its mind to the fact in that it required and directed its employees to work in stripping materials upon the platform furnished without first giving all necessary orders and instructions upon the process to be followed, the number of employees to be engaged therein and the load weight or stress capacity of the platform. Generally, the commission found that at the time of the injury and immediately prior thereto the employer, through its general superintendent, wilfully failed to comply with the requirements of sections 6400 to 6403 inclusive of the Labor Code and each of them. These sections provide that employers shall furnish a safe place of employment, shall use safety devices and safeguards and adopt practices and processes reasonably adequate to render employment and the place of employment safe and shall generally do anything reasonably necessary to protect the life and safety of employees, it being expressly forbidden