Granville v. Scranton Coal Co.

Citations

• 76 Pa. Super. 335
• 1921 Pa. Super. LEXIS 147

Syllabus

<p>Workmen’s Compensation Act — Injuries received while not working — Injuries by machinery not used by the employee injured —“In the course of employment” — “Occupations wholly foreign to employment.”</p> <p>The Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1915 is not a mere variant from master and servant negligence law; negligence and contributory negligence have nothing to do with it. Its primary purpose was to substitute a method of accident insurance in place of common law rights and liabilities. It does not require that injuries to be compensable must have arisen “out of the employment”; they need only have occurred “in the course of the employment.”</p> <p>If an accident happens during the course of employment, compensation will not be withheld because the employee was doing something apart from his actual employment, provided he was not shown to have been doing- something wholly foreign to his employment.</p> <p>An unexplained accidental injury to an employee during his lunch intermission, by machinery which he did not operate and in a part of the employer’s premises where he was permitted though not required to be, is an accident in the course of his employment. Merely going from one floor to another in the building or breaker, in which he was employed, would not be doing something wholly foreign to his employment.</p>