GIBSON, C.J.
These are proceedings to review orders of the Industrial Accident Commission awarding compensation for injuries sustained by employees in an automobile accident which occurred while they were returning home from work.
Bjerke, Padilla and Ruble lived in Pomona and were employed by petitioner Kobe on a roofing job in San Bernardino. It was agreed that the men would work nine hours per day and would receive an additional hour's pay to compensate them for the time spent in traveling to and from work. Kobe was a party to a union contract which obligated him to pay travel time to employees who traveled back and forth each day to jobs over 15 miles distant from the employer's place of business, and it was common practice in the business to pay one hour's extra pay in lieu of travel time. The employees involved in these proceedings traveled to and from the job in San Bernardino in an automobile owned and driven by Bjerke, the trip ordinarily taking about thirty-five minutes. On the day of the accident, they left their place of work at 4:30 p.m. and 10 to 15 minutes later, after they had proceeded about 5 miles on the shortest route to Pomona, the automobile in which they were riding was struck by a locomotive. Bjerke and Padilla were seriously injured and Ruble subsequently died from the effects of the injuries he received.
The question before us is whether the evidence supports the
The case of Western Pipe etc. Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com., 49 Cal.App.2d 108 [121 P.2d 35], is directly in point. There a death benefit award was affirmed in favor of the widow of an employee who was killed while returning to work from dinner. After pointing out that normally an employee on his way to or from meals is not performing services for the employer, the court stated at page 112-113: "But, of course, the employer may expressly or impliedly agree that service shall continue during the period the employee is going to or coming from his meals taken off the premises. When the employer pays the employee at an hourly rate during his meal hours ... it seems to be, and is a reasonable inference, that by such an arrangement the employer has impliedly agreed that service will continue during such period." In reaching this conclusion, the court pointed out that an exception to the "going and coming" rule is generally recognized "`where the employee's compensation covers the time involved in going to or from his work, or an allowance is made for the cost of transportation.' (87 A.L.R. 250.)" "Running through the cases," the opinion continues, "is the thought
The awards are affirmed.
Shenk, J., Edmonds, J., Carter, J., Traynor, J., Schauer, J., and Spence, J., concurred.
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