Crockett v. Industrial Accident Commission

WASTE, J.

Petitioner is here seeking an annulment of an award of the Industrial Accident Commission. An application for an adjustment of claim having been filed, the commission found that “J. B. Smith, applicant, while employed as a carpenter on November 2, 1920, at Los Angeles, by defendant, P. M. Crockett, sustained injury occurring in the course of and arising out of his employment, as follows: While sweeping down some walls in defendant’s residence at the request of defendant’s wife, a foreign body entered his eye, resulting in ulceration and complete loss of sight of right eye.” As, at the time of the injury, both the employer and employee were subject to the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, an award was made in favor of the applicant in the amount of $2,041, with an additional sum for medical expenses.

The circumstances surrounding the employment and injury, as found by the commission, were as follows: Crockett, the employer, was engaged in converting a barn into a residence. He hired Smith as a carpenter to assist him in that work. Crockett and his family occupied the structure as a residence during the time the alterations were being made, the structure not being entirely habitable until the completion of the alterations. The contract of hire, contemplating employment for more than ten working days, and at a labor cost of more than one hundred dollars, was not, therefore, casual in its nature. In the course of his employment, Crockett directed Smith to comply with any orders or directions which might be given him by Mrs. Crockett, petitioner’s wife. It appears that during the progress of the work, while the principal task assigned to Smith was that of carpentry, yet, due to the fact that he was the only man employed upon the place, he was called upon by Crockett to do a number of incidental jobs which would ordinarily, on

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a larger job, be performed by someone else. The record shows that Smith frequently went to a near-by lumber-yard and transported lumber on his shoulders from that yard to the place where he was working. He cleaned up the debris which accumulated as the old portions of the barn were torn down. He also cleaned up the litter from the work performed by him. Tinder Crockett’s specific orders he assisted in unloading a wagon of furniture, and on an occasion other than that of the time of the injury, under Crockett’s specific direction, he cleaned cobwebs from the studding. On the day that the injury occurred Crockett, having an errand elsewhere, left the place, but, before going, gave Smith certain specific instructions as to carpentry work he wished performed, and then directed Smith to do whatever Mrs. Crockett might demand of him. While Smith was engaged upon the carpentry work Mrs. Crockett stated to him that she wished to "move the cooking-stove from the yard into the building, and asked him to clean away cobwebs and dirt which covered the floor joists above the place where the stove was to be set. She gave Smith a long-handled broom, and showed him where she wished the sweeping of the joists to be done. Smith accordingly undertook the task, and while engaged therein some dirt or foreign substance fell into his right eye, which resulted in the injury complained of.