Scottish Court of Session Decisions

This was an appeal in an arbitration under the Workmen's Compensation Act 1897 in the Sheriff Court at Hamilton between Michael Keenan, claimant and appellant, and the Flemington Coal Company, Limited, Glasgow, respondents, in which the claimant claimed £171, 12s., with interest from 30th May 1902, as compensation due to him under the Act in respect of the death of his son John Keenan.

In the case for appeal the Sheriff-Substitute ( Davidson) stated as follows “This claim was made by the appellant in respect of the death of his son John Keenan, who resided at Lorne Rest Buildings, Silverbanks, Cambuslang, upon whom, as is alleged, he was totally dependent. It is stated that the said John Keenan was in the employment of the respondents upon the 30th May 1902 as a drawer-off at Gateside Colliery, Cambuslang. He left the pit-head, at which his work was situated, for a few minutes to get a drink of water at the boilers, and when returning he was struck by a runaway hutch and killed. The case was heard before me on the 30th July 1902, when the following facts were admitted or proved—That the said John Keenan was working at Gateside Colliery on 30th May 1902; that there are two methods of reaching the boilers from the pit-head, one by means of a stair, which is the proper and recognised way, and one by means of a hutchway, which the workmen were in the habit of using, and were not prohibited from using; that water was provided at the pit-head by the workmen themselves, otherwise the nearest water the deceased could get was at the boiler; that on the date above mentioned Keenan left the pithead and went to the boilers to get a drink of water; that on his way back to the pithead he was crushed on the said hutchway by a runaway hutch and killed. The appellant received 8s. per week from the deceased, and received no support from anyone else, and was wholly dependent on the earnings of the deceased.

“In these circumstances I found that deceased was not killed while in the course of his employment, and awarded no compensation to the appellant.

The question of law for the determination of the Court of Session is—Was the deceased John Keenan in the circumstances narrated killed in the course of his employment?”

Argued for the appellant—The Sheriff-Substitute had taken an unduly narrow view of the Act in holding that a man going for a drink of water to a place within is employers' premises during the period of his work was not at the time in the course of his employment. There was no allegation that Keenan went for a drink in order to waste time; he must be considered to have gone for the drink in order to conduct his work more efficiently. The case of Goodlet v. Caledonian Railway Company, July 10, 1902, 39 S.L.R. 759, was a fortiori of the present. In that case the claimant had gone out of his way in order to indulge in casual conversation with a fellow employee, and yet the accident was held to have arisen in the course of his employment.

Argued for the respondents—This was really a question of fact, and the Sheriff-Substitute's decision on such a question should not be disturbed. But even if the question was taken as one of law, the judgment appealed against was right. A man might not be acting in the course of his employment even although the accident happened within his employers' premises— Falconer v. London and Glasgow Engineering and Iron Shipbuilding Company, Limited, February 23, 1901, 3 F. 564, 38 S.L.R. 381. The case was ruled by Smith v. Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway [1899], 1 Q.B. 141. In the present case Keenan went for the drink of water not for any purpose of his employment but for his own pleasure.