An injury to an employee may be said to arise "in the course of his employment" when it occurs within the period of his employment, at a place where he reasonably may be, and while he is reasonably fulfilling the duties of his employment, or is engaged in doing something incidental to it. An employee after having worked outside in wintry weather for several hours, came in, and while awaiting his opportunity to use a freight elevator to carry up beef for his employer, sat down in front of the firebox of the boiler, fell asleep, and a few minutes thereafter was awakened by finding his greasy clothing on fire. Held that upon these facts the commissioner, and the Superior Court upon appeal, properly ruled that the plaintiff's injury arose "out of and in the course of his employment," within the meaning of that expression in our Workmen's Compensation Act.
RORABACK, J.
Generally speaking, "an injury to an employee may be said to arise `in the course of his employment,' when it occurs within the period of his employment, at a place where he reasonably may be, and while he is reasonably fulfilling the duties of his employment, or is engaged in doing something incidental to it." Larke v. Hancock Mutual Life Ins. Co., 90 Conn. 303, 97 A. 320; Mann v. Glastonbury Knitting Co., 90 Conn. 116, 119, 96 A. 368.
The controlling question here presented is whether Richards, the plaintiff, when injured, was actually doing the work he was employed to do, or whether he was doing something substantially different. He was injured while on duty, in his working hours, when waiting for an opportunity to continue his service of employment. The accident occurred when the plaintiff was at a place where he might reasonably be. There was no turning aside upon his part, no attempt to serve ends of his own.
The fact that he fell asleep, under the circumstances set forth in the finding, was not decisive of his claim. This at the most was negligence, and our Compensation Act of 1913 expressly provides that in an action to recover damages for injuries sustained by an employee, arising out of and in the course of his employment, it shall not be a defense that the injured employee was negligent.