Hickox

W. J. Hickox was a contracting painter engaged in business in the city of Stockton, in the course of which he employed several other painters, to whom he paid a uniform wage of $2.50 a day. The New Amsterdam-Casualty Company was the insurer of said Hickox against his liability for compensation of employees under the Workmen’s Compensation Act. One R. M. Searle entered the employment of said Hickox on the twenty-fourth day of May, 1917, agreeing to work for $2.50 a day. He -had prior to that time been working intermittently in several towns of the San Joaquin Valley and elsewhere, receiving wages ranging from $2.50 a day to $5, but not staying long in any one place or remaining long in any single employment. On May 26, 1917, while in the employment of said Hickox, he fell from a ladder and received an injury to his arm, in consequence of which he made application to the Industrial Accident Commission for compensation.

The evidence taken before the commission showed the foregoing facts, and also showed from the testimony of another contracting painter exclusively engaged in such work in Stockton that the standard wage scale in that city for painters was $4.50 per day. The…