MacDonald v. Industrial Accident Commission

LANGDON, J.

This is a petition by an employee for review of an order of the Industrial Accident Commission dismissing an application for compensation.

Petitioner was employed as a traveling demonstrator of food products by the Battle Creek Pood Company. She solicited orders in various cities and towns in California and several other western states. On October 2, 1928, she was in Billings, Montana, and had lunch there at a small cafeteria. On her way out she slipped and fell to the floor, suffering a fracture of the hip. She was taken to a hospital, and remained there under treatments for three months.

A claim for compensation was filed on October 1, 1929, and a hearing was had thereon, in which several issues were presented to the Commission. With respect to the question whether the injury arose in the course of her employment, petitioner testified that she intended to make a demonstration and was waiting to interview the manager. The evidence on this point is not entirely satisfactory, and the Commission in its findings ignored this and other issues, resting its order on the sole ground that the application was barred by the statute of limitations.

The Workmen’s Compensation Act requires that a claim for compensation must be filed within six months from the date of the injury, but makes certain exceptions to this requirement. The one relied upon here reads as follows: “provided, further, that the provisions of this section shall not apply to an employee who is totally disabled and bedridden as a result of his injury, during the continuance of such

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condition or until the expiration of six months thereafter”. (Workmen’s Compensation Act, sec. 11 [e] ; Deering’s General Laws, Act 4749, p. 1721.) It is petitioner’s contention that she was “totally disabled and bedridden” within the meaning of the statute, from the time of her injury up to a period less than six months before filing her application with the Commission. Since the application was filed on October 1, 1929, this contention must fall unless it be shown that petitioner was bedridden until about April 1, 1929.

Whether a person is in this condition is a question of fact, and the burden is upon the applicant to bring himself within the statutory exception.