Martin v. Industrial Commission

In Martin v. Industrial Commission, 75 Ariz. 403, 257 P.2d 596 (1953), a worker died of carbon monoxide poisoning after business hours while in a company truck on the employer's premises; it was unclear why the employee was there. The court stated the sole question was whether the employee had been in the course of his employment because, if so, the poisoning would clearly arise from his employment. The court cited Arthur Larson, The Law of Workman's Compensation (1989) as the "correct statement of the law" concerning the death presumption: "When an employee is found dead under circumstances indicating that death took place within the time and space limits of the employment, in the absence of any evidence of what caused the death most courts will indulge a presumption or inference that the death arose out of the employment." Martin, 75 Ariz. at 411, 257 P.2d at 601.