City of Oakland v. Industrial Accident Commission

WASTE, C. J.

Charles Paul, a civil service employee of the City of Oakland, a municipal corporation, was injured while working as a deck-hand or donkeyman on an anchor barge, or scow, used as a tender to a municipal dredger owned and operated by the city. The dredger was, from time to time, employed for the purpose of deepening the

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channel in the Oakland estuary and in the bay of San Francisco. The barge was used in stringing out tow-lines and hoisting anchors, and in transporting such material as was necessary. It was capable of being towed anywhere about the bay, or even beyond the Golden Gate. At the time of the injury to Paul, it was tied up at one of the city’s municipal wharves, and was afloat on the navigable waters of the estuary. At 8 o’clock on a morning while the crew was making preparations for the day’s work, and preliminary to the barge being towed to such places along the shore as might be required, Paul was injured while engaged in cutting wood for the purpose of supplying fuel for a boiler on board. On application by the injured employee, the respondent, Industrial Accident Commission, made an award of compensation, and the cause comes to this court on a writ of review to determine whether or noi it has jurisdiction in the premises.

The contention of the City of Oakland, which is its own insurance carrier, is that the injury was of a maritime character, and that therefore the application of the state Workmen’s Compensation Act (Stats. 1917, p. 831) was excluded by the paramount force of the Law Maritime of the United States. The respondent Commission was at first of the same mind, and dismissed the application for an adjustment of compensation. On rehearing, it assumed jurisdiction, and made an award. Two theories are advanced by it in support of its final action. Its first contention is that Paul’s employment and injury were nonmaritime, in that neither had any direct relation to navigation or commerce (citing

Grant Smith-Porter Ship Co.

v.

Rohde,

257 U. S. 469 [25 A. L. R. 1008, 66 L. Ed. 321, 42 Sup. Ct. Rep. 157, see, also, .Rose’s U. S. Notes]). Petitioner relies upon certain decisions of this court as sustaining a contrary view. It was held in