Ethen v. Franklin Manufacturing Company

Otis, Justice.

Relator, Albert Michael Ethen, seeks review of a decision of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission denying him benefits. The only issue is whether an injury arising out of a company picnic was work-related and, therefore, compensable. We hold that it was not.

The employee, a forklift operator, was requested by his foreman to take part in a tug of war at a company-sponsored picnic held on Sportsmen’s Island in the Mississippi River near St. Cloud on August 26, 1967. About half of the 1,100 employees attended. For some undisclosed reason the event in which the employee was to…