Blood

This is a proceeding in certiorari to review an award made by the Industrial Accident Commission. The petitioner, Frank Blood, owned a two-story frame building at Huntington Park, in Los Angeles County, consisting of a storeroom below and two flats above, one of the flats being occupied by the owner. Blood employed one W. F. Heck, a house painter by trade, to apply two coats of paint to the house. Blood was to furnish the painting materials and pay Heck at the rate of $3.50 per day. The employment was not for any definite period of time, but the evidence shows that the work would reasonably have been done within two weeks. During the first day of his employment Heck was accidentally injured and suffered a temporary total disability, on account of which an award in his favor was made by the commission.

On behalf of petitioner it is contended that in making any allowance whatever the commission acted in excess of its jurisdiction, because the employment of the applicant for compensation was “both casual and not in the usual course of the trade, business, profession, or occupation of his employer.” (Workmen’s Compensation, Insurance, and Safety Act, see. 14, [Stats. 1913, p. 284].)…