## Facts

- Patrick Donahue was employed by Thomas J. Flynn & Co. to sell church products.
- Donahue’s work was mainly on the road, traveling throughout New England by train, electric streetcar, and on foot to visit clergy and other customers.
- On February 21, 1916, Donahue left Flynn’s Boston store and traveled by train and streetcar to Collinsville, Massachusetts.
- After arriving, Donahue walked about ten minutes from the streetcar line to a clergyman’s house to make a sales call.
- When the meeting ended, Donahue began walking back toward the streetcar line, intending to take a car to another Massachusetts town to make another business call.
- A short distance from the clergyman’s house, Donahue slipped on icy pavement on a public way, fell, and broke his ankle.
- Donahue sought compensation under the Massachusetts Workmen’s Compensation Act from Flynn and Flynn’s workers’ compensation insurer, Maryland Casualty Company.
- The Industrial Accident Board found that Donahue’s injury arose out of and in the course of his employment and awarded compensation.
- The Superior Court affirmed the award, and Maryland Casualty appealed to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts.

## Issues

1. Whether Donahue’s injury, sustained while walking on an icy public sidewalk between sales calls, arose out of and in the course of his employment under the Massachusetts Workmen’s Compensation Act.  
2. Whether Maryland Casualty, as Flynn’s workers’ compensation insurer, was obligated under the Act and policy to pay compensation for a covered injury.

## Decision

- The Supreme Judicial Court affirmed the decree awarding compensation.
- The court held there was evidence to support the Industrial Accident Board’s finding that Donahue was injured while doing what his work required—traveling on foot between the customer location and the streetcar line to continue sales calls.
- The court rejected the insurer’s attempt to avoid payment and treated the insurer’s obligation as part of the statutory compensation scheme once a covered work injury was shown.

## Legal Principles

- For an employee whose job requires travel, the “course of employment” can include reasonable travel and ordinary acts incidental to reaching and leaving customer locations and transportation points while pursuing the employer’s business.
- An injury may “arise out of” employment when the employment places the employee in the position where the risk is encountered and the employee is engaged in work-related activity, even though the risk is one also faced by the public (such as winter conditions on a public way).
- Findings of fact by the Industrial Accident Board on work connection are sustained when supported by evidence.
- Under the Massachusetts workers’ compensation system, the insurer’s policy is tied to the statute, and when an injury is compensable, the insurer is responsible to pay compensation in the manner provided by the Act.

## Conclusion

Donahue’s broken ankle was compensable because he was a traveling salesman returning from a business call and heading to transportation to continue his work when he slipped on an icy public sidewalk, and the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court affirmed that Maryland Casualty, as the employer’s workers’ compensation insurer, was responsible for payment under the Act and policy.


Donahue v. Maryland Casualty Co., 116 N.E. 226 (1917)