Associated Oil Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com

In Associated Oil Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com. (1923) 191 Cal. 557, an employee who lived in a rooming house provided by his employer and on the employer's property was injured when the leg of a chair on which he sat went through a crack in the porch floor, causing him to fall from the porch. (Id. at pp. 558-559.) The Industrial Accident Commission awarded the employee workers' compensation benefits. (Id. at pp. 558-559.) The employer sought certiorari. And got it. The Supreme Court considered whether "'injuries occurring about the employer's bunkhouse situated on the employer's working premises, sustained by employees during their leisure hours while reasonably using the bunkhouse in a proper manner during intermissions from work, the injury being due to unsafe conditions of the premises provided by the employer, are within the protection of the Workmen's Compensation Act.'" (Associated Oil Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com., supra, 191 Cal. at p. 559.) It noted the general rule that "when the contract of employment contemplates that the employees shall sleep upon the premises of the employer, the employee, under such circumstances, is considered to be performing services growing out of and incidental to such employment during the time he is on the premises of the employer." (Ibid.)