Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

Petitioner by writ of certiorari seeks a review of an award made by respondent Industrial Accident Commission in favor of respondent Wilford Farrow, a newsboy, and prays that the award be annulled.

The injury for which compensation was awarded was sustained by respondent Farrow while engaged as a newsboy in the selling of newspapers upon the streets of the city of Los Angeles. Petitioner is the insurance carrier for the news paper held chargeable by the award with the payment of compensation. The evidence introduced at the hearing before the Commission, though conflicting as to some of its details, was to the effect that petitioner’s insured engaged the injured boy as a newsboy to sell its papers, and had the right to discharge him in the event it so desired. Petitioner stresses the fact that the newsboy in this case did not have the right to return the papers delivered to him for sale, but that in the event any such papers were unsold at the end of the day, the newsboy was required to pay for such papers.

The sole question presented to the Industrial Accident Commission and to this court is a question of law as to whether the injured newsboy came within the category of a…