Fidelity & Casualty Co. of New York v. Industrial Accident Commission

A proceeding in certiorari to review an order of the Industrial Accident Commission awarding compensation for the death of Alexander S. Gardiner.

The petitioner was the insurance carrier for a copartnership known as Balfour, Guthrie & Company, by whom the deceased was employed at the time of his death.

The deceased had been an employee of the insured for several years and in June, 1926, was sent by his employers from San Francisco to Valparaiso, Chile, to represent them at a nitrate conference to be held in the latter city.

Although the primary object of the trip was to attend the conference, the deceased was also instructed to visit various concerns in South America with whom his employers were interested in a business way.

Pursuant to his instructions, the employee left San Francisco on June 12, 1926, stopping at several places en route to Valparaiso, where he arrived on July 8th, and where he remained until July 18, 1926.

Upon the completion of his duties there he visited several places and ports where nitrate is produced and shipped, arriving at Ilia on July 25th, where he showed signs of illness, and at Arequipa, Peru, on July 27th, at which place he was taken to a…