Hale v. Savage Fire Brick Co.

Citations

• 75 Pa. Super. 454
• 1921 Pa. Super. LEXIS 42

Syllabus

<p>Workmen's Compensation Act — Injuries in course of employment — Injuries sustained while playing with fellow workmen— Right to compensation.</p> <p>An employee is entitled to recover compensation under the Act of June 2, 1915, P. L. 736 (Workmen’s Compensation Act) for injuries received through falling over a wall, while attempting to escape from his fellow employees on the property of his employer during the lunch hour.</p> <p>The Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Act differs from that in force in many states in that it does not require that the accident resulting in an injury must “arise out of the employment” but only that it occur “in the course of the employment.” In most other jurisdictions both elements must be present, viz: the accident must arise out of and in the course of the employment.</p> <p>The Pennsylvania statute does not require that the employee should be actually engaged in his work when he is injured in order to make his injury compensable.</p> <p>Compensation, under tht Workmen’s Compensation Act of Pennsylvania, has nothing to do with the question of negligence or contributory negligence. It is not awarded because the employer is at fault or withheld from the workman because he himself is at fault, providing the injury is not intentionally self-inflicted. The purpose of the act is to relieve to some extent the employee, who has been injured in the course of his employment, from the economic consequences of his injury and make them a part of the cost of the operation of the business, to be paid ultimately by the consuming public, and the act should be construed so as to carry this purpose into effect.</p>