Citations
- 295 S.W.2d 482
Full opinion text
BOYD, Justice.
From a judgment in favor of appellees Lula Davidson and husband, Otis Davidson, for workmen’s compensation for Mrs. Davidson for total and permanent disability, payable in a lump sum, appellant Texas Employers’ Insurance Association prosecutes this appeal.
The case was tried by the court without a jury. No contention is here made that the evidence did not support the findings that Mrs. Davidson is totally and permanently disabled and that liability should be redeemed in a lump sum. Appellant’s only contentions are that the evidence does not support the findings that Mrs. Davidson was injured in the course of her employment and that her average weekly wage was $43.85, as found by the court.
Mrs. Davidson was employed by Russell-Newman Manufacturing Company as a power sewing machine operator. She was paid by the hour. She was not paid for the fifty minutes from 12:00 o’clock noon to 12:50 P.M. That was the lunch period. Some of the employees brought their lunch and ate it on the premises of the employer. Some went to cafes in town and some went home for lunch. Mrs. Davidson sometimes went to a cafe for. lunch, and sometimes went home. On the day of the accident giving rise to this suit, she brought her ■ lunch and ate at her machine. This procedure was allowed by hér employer. Those who ate lunch in the room where Mrs. Davidson worked were directed to put their waste in a barrel in the room.
On the occasion of her injuries, Mrs. Davidson sat at her machine about five minutes after the 12:00 o’clock wh'istle blew, arranging some material with which she expected to begin her work at 12:50. She was not required to do this during the 'lunch period, and was not. paid for that time. Then she ate her lunch. This took about ten minutes. After finishing her meal, she arose from her chair and started toward the ■ waste barrel in order to deposit her waste therein. Before reaching the barrel she stepped on a piece of paper which was on the floor, and the paper caused her foot to slip and that caused her to fall. Her fall resulted in the injuries complained of. The piece of paper she stepped on, came from the binding, of materials which had been brought into the room to be used by the employees in their work.
Appellant contends that since it was conclusively shown that Mrs. Davidson’s injuries were sustained during the lunch hour, for which time she drew no pay, she .was not engaged in the furtherance of her employer’s business, and that therefore the case does not come under the terms of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306 et seq. Its argument is that before an injury is compensable it must have occurred while the employee was engaged in or about the furtherance of his employer’s business, and that the injury must be of such kind and character as had to do with and originated in the employer’s business, that is, that there must be a causal relation between the conditions of the work and the injury; and that these prerequisites are not met by proof that the employee was “on her own time,” although on the employer’s premises and at her place of work when the accident occurred.
Appellant insists .that eating her lunch and carrying her waste to the barrel were incidents personal to Mrs. Davidson, and that she was not then engaged in the furtherance of her employer’s business. The case of McKim v. Commercial Standard Ins. Co., Tex.Civ.App., 179 S.W.2d 357, is cited by appellant as authority for its position. We do not'think that case is controlling here. Mrs. McKim was employed as a hatmaker on the second floor of her employer’s establishment. She was paid by the hour. She was not paid for the lunch period. During the lunch period she went downstairs to the selling department of her employer’s business. While engaged in the process