Elliott v. Industrial Accident Commission

CARTER, J.

— Petitioners, the wife and children of Robert Andrew Elliott, deceased, seek to have annulled an order of the Industrial Accident Commission denying them compensation for the death of the deceased.

Decedent was employed as an electrician and millwright by the Globe Grain & Milling Company. When he left home on February 17, 1940, he had a light cough but otherwise seemed to be in good physical condition. He arrived at his place of employment at about 7 a. m., and shortly thereafter informed Mr. Fordahl, a fellow employee, that he

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did not feel very well, which he ascribed to a former attack of influenza. To Mr. Pordahl’s question as to whether he thought a drink of wine would “do him any good,” he replied that he thought it would. Mr. Pordahl then obtained a bottle from his locker containing what he supposed was wine from which decedent took a swallow. He spit it out declaring that it was not wine. The contents of the bottle was carbon . tetrachloride, used as an insect spray, a poison from which decedent died. Mr. Pordahl had found the bottle in the carpenter shop where he usually did his work, about two weeks before the above incident. It was standing upon a plank lying across two saw-horses and was covered with a flour sack. It bore a label reading “Muskatel Wine.” Mr. Pordahl placed the bottle in his locker, which he kept locked.

The employer had a rule prohibiting his employees from drinking while at work, but it does not appear whether or not deceased was aware of that rule. It does not appear under what circumstances the bottle came to be in the carpenter shop. The employer kept drums of carbon tetrachloride to be used in killing weevils.

The commission found that decedent’s death did not arise out of his employment, and that is the sole issue presented on this review inasmuch as it cannot be doubted that the carbon tetrachloride was consumed during the course of the employment.

The rule here pertinent was first stated in

Whiting-Mead Com. Co.

v.

Industrial Acc. Com.,