County of Los Angeles v. Industrial Accident Commission

THE COURT.

An award was made by the Industrial Accident Commission against the petitioners and in favor of Caroline Wolhaupter for injuries sustained by her while serving as inspector at the election held in November, 1926. Mrs. Wolhaupter had been regularly appointed as such inspector by the board of supervisors of Los Angeles County

[737]

to serve at the polling place in Precinct No. 44 in the city of Santa Monica. A small real estate office was used as the polling place. In due time the work of counting the ballots commenced and continued all night until about 4:30 the next morning, when one of the lady members of the election board fainted. No water had been provided on the premises. In order to restore the lady who had fainted to consciousness, ,Mrs. Wolhaupter went to the lot of an adjoining oil station to get water from a faucet, a practice which had been followed during the day. In the darkness she walked into a service pit on this lot and suffered a broken collar-bone and other injuries. Petitioners now seek to annul the award made for these injuries.

Petitioners first contend that Mrs. Wolhaupter was not an employee of the county of Los Angeles within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Insurance and Safety Act, and therefore not entitled to the award made in her behalf. They cite the case of

City of Los Angeles

v.

Industrial Acc. Com.,

35 Cal. App. 31 [169 Pac. 260], as authority for this contention. In that case an election officer was injured while carrying the returns to the city hall. The court held that as such officer he was not an employee within the terms of the act. The injuries of the election officer were received on June 6, 1916, and the decision was made October 17, 1917. The case was governed by the law in force at the time of the accident. A very important amendment to the act was passed in 1917 which clearly makes the decision cited inapplicable to the facts of the case now before us. Before the amendment of 1917 an employee was defined as follows: “Every person in the service of an employer as defined by section thirteen hereof under any appointment or contract of hire or apprenticeship, express or implied, oral or written, including aliens and also including minors, but excluding any person whose employment is both casual and not in the usual course of the trade, business, profession or occupation of his employer, and also excluding any employee engaged in farm, dairy, agricultural, viticultural or horticultural labor, in stock or poultry raising or in household domestic service.” (Stats. 1913, p. 284.) By the amendment of 1917 the term “employee” is defined as follows: “Every person in the service of an employer as defined by section seven hereof under any