PITTSBURG & MIDWAY COAL MIN. CO. v. Rubley

• Decision Date: 07 June 2002
• Parties: The PITTSBURG & MIDWAY COAL MINING COMPANY v. Barbara RUBLEY, individually, and Crystal Rubley, by and through Barbara Rubley, her guardian and next friend.
• Court: Alabama Court of Civil Appeals

882 So.2d 335

The PITTSBURG & MIDWAY COAL MINING COMPANY v. Barbara RUBLEY, individually, and Crystal Rubley, by and through Barbara Rubley, her guardian and next friend.

2001039.

Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama.

June 7, 2002.

John W. Hargrove and T. Matthew Miller of Bradley, Arant, Rose & White, L.L.P., Birmingham, for appellant.

Garve W. Ivey, Jr., and Barry A. Ragsdale of Ivey & Ragsdale, Birmingham, for appellees.

CRAWLEY, Judge.

In June 2000, Barbara Rubley, in her individual capacity and as guardian and next friend of Crystal Rubley, a minor child, sued the Pittsburg & Midway Coal Mining Company ("the company") in the Walker Circuit Court, seeking benefits under the Alabama Workers' Compensation Act ("the Act"). In that complaint, Barbara Rubley and Crystal Rubley alleged that on July 22, 1999, Albert Franklin Rubley ("the worker"), who was Barbara Rubley's husband and Crystal Rubley's father, suffered a brain injury arising out of and in the course of his employment by the company and had died as a result of that injury. On the company's motion, the case was transferred to the Tuscaloosa Circuit Court, and the company filed an answer denying that the worker had been injured in a workplace accident. After an ore tenus proceeding, the trial court, on June 5, 2001, entered a judgment in favor of Barbara Rubley and Crystal Rubley and awarded them compensation pursuant to § 25-5-60, Ala.Code 1975, a portion of the Act.¹ The company filed a notice of appeal on July 12, 2001.

The standard of review in a workers' compensation case was stated by our supreme court in Ex parte Trinity Indus., Inc., 680 So.2d 262 (Ala.1996):

"[W]e will not reverse the trial court's finding of fact if that finding is supported by substantial evidence — if that finding is supported by `evidence of such weight and quality that fair-minded persons in the exercise of impartial judgment can reasonably infer the existence of the fact sought to be proved.'"

680 So.2d at 268-69 (quoting West v. Founders Life Assur. Co. of Florida, 547 So.2d 870, 871 (Ala.1989)). However, "an appellate court's review of the proof and [its] consideration of other legal issues in a workers' compensation case shall be without a presumption of correctness." Ex parte American Color Graphics, Inc., 838 So.2d 385, 387-88 (Ala.2002) (citing Ala.Code 1975, § 25-5-81(e)(1)).

The record reveals the following pertinent facts. The worker, who was 53 years old at the time of his death, worked as a coal miner on the company's middle work shift (i.e., approximately 2:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m.). Among the worker's duties were maintaining and operating a conveyor belt in a lower pocket of an underground coal mine. To access his workplace, the worker would be lowered by an elevator into an upper mine pocket and then would have to descend approximately 8 flights of stairs, each containing about 10 steps composed of grated steel. Likewise, to leave his workplace, the worker would climb the steps to exit the lower pocket and take the elevator out of the upper pocket.

Before July 22, 1999, the worker had suffered only one injury at his workplace, a knee injury in 1997 from which the worker had recovered sufficiently so as to resume work. However, the worker was not in perfect health. The record reveals that the worker was afflicted with diabetes mellitus, which required his blood sugar to be monitored to ensure that it was an appropriate level. The worker also had a history of hypertension, gout, headaches, backaches, and neckaches, as well as impaired liver functioning arising from abuse of alcohol. However, these conditions did not prevent the worker from regularly performing his work duties.

At some point during a family vacation that lasted until July 17, 1999, the worker suffered a fall while on a swimming excursion to a former strip-mining pit. During that vacation, the worker chose to stop his alcohol intake; before that time, the worker typically had drunk either a "six-pack" of beer or a pint of rum each day. Although the worker was scheduled to return to work on Monday, July 19, 1999, he took that Monday off from work because of back pain and neck stiffness, but he returned to work on the following day. In addition, the worker consulted a chiropractor on July 21, 1999, regarding neck and back pain, although he worked his full shift that day.

While at home on the morning of July 22, 1999, a Thursday, the worker's blood sugar dropped to a level between 30 and 49, a level that is considered below normal; the worker complained of dizziness, and he exhibited some confusion. The worker's adult son, who worked as an emergency-room nurse, testified that the worker "should have [gone] to the hospital [to] be checked out," but the worker's dizziness abated after he ingested glucose and a carbonated beverage. The worker then consumed a regular lunchtime meal and went to work.

Upon arrival at the mine, the worker spoke with Johnny Willis, a worker in the upper mine pocket; the worker commented that he was experiencing neck pain, but otherwise did not relate anything that Willis considered unusual. However, just after beginning his work shift, the worker sat down on a bench next to Leland Blanton, a mine examiner who had known the worker for years; the worker did not speak for between 5 and 10 minutes, prompting Blanton to ask Willis whether anything was wrong.

After descending to his work station, where he worked alone, the worker communicated by an internal intercom, or "mine phone," with Willis on two occasions during his shift, at approximately 5:30 p.m. (when the worker requested the temporary removal of an electrical circuit breaker) and 9:25 p.m. (when Willis asked the worker to add water to a conveyor transfer belt to reduce friction). Willis reported that the worker typically had left his work station by 9:25 p.m., although Willis opined that the worker had seemed normal based on their interaction over the mine phone.

Two coworkers who actually saw the worker at his work station in the lower mine pocket during his shift testified that the worker may not have been feeling well. A roving worker named Earl Wayne Holmes testified that he had talked with the worker at 4:30 p.m. and had seen him again at 7:00 p.m.; Holmes opined that the worker had "looked like he was a little bit pale." Wayne Kimbrell, who worked at the worker's work station on the night shift, testified that he had relieved the worker at his work station at 9:50 p.m., which was somewhat unusual because by that time on most workdays, the worker typically had ascended the steps and had temporarily relieved the "top man." Kimbrell testified that he had encountered the worker sitting on a bench looking "pale ... like he had been up a long time." When the worker struggled to rise from the bench, Kimbrell asked if the worker was all right; the worker replied that he was.

After Kimbrell had turned away for two or three minutes to perform certain work duties, the worker began to climb the stairs leading out of the lower pocket of the mine. However, when Kimbrell returned, he noticed that the worker was having difficulty climbing the stairs, forcefully holding the handrail. Kimbrell followed the worker part of the way up the stairs, again asking if the worker was all right; the worker again said that he was all right, adding "[I]t's probably my sugar."

Kimbrell followed the worker up the stairs until he came within four flights of the upper pocket, from which the elevator for the surface embarked. Kimbrell then contacted Clarence Butler, who was working in the upper pocket; Kimbrell informed Butler that the worker was on his way up the stairs and requested that Butler notify him if the worker did not arrive soon. The worker then completed his ascent, and Butler called to the worker; the worker acknowledged Butler by turning towards Butler and waving his hand, and he then walked about 20 feet towards the elevator, at which time he left Butler's sight.²

The worker typically arrived at his home at 11:00 p.m. after leaving work; however, on July 22, 1999, he did not do so. At approximately 11:15 p.m., Willy Winston, another mine worker, telephoned the worker's home to ascertain whether the worker had reached home, but was told that the worker had not yet come home. The worker's son traveled to the mine and found another of the worker's coworkers, Phil ("Buck") Buchanan. The two of them found the worker in the mine's ground-level bathhouse. The worker was found in a stall, talking to himself, half-dressed and with wet hair; the worker was disoriented and recognized neither Buchanan (whom he called by the nickname of another coworker) nor his own son. The worker's son administered glucose paste to the worker under the belief that the worker was suffering a diabetic reaction but that did not alleviate the worker's condition.

The worker was then taken by a company automobile to a hospital emergency room in Northport, where he was diagnosed with bilateral subarachnoid hemorrhages after a CT scan revealed bleeding in the area of his brain. He was then transported by an ambulance to a Bessemer hospital, where he was admitted at 8:30 a.m. on July 23, 1999, and subsequently underwent treatment by Dr. Evan Zeiger, a board-certified neurosurgeon. However, the worker's condition worsened, and he died on July 31, 1999. Dr. Zeiger testified that the most likely ultimate cause of the worker's death was a traumatic brain injury caused by a fall that occurred within 12 hours of the worker's admission to the Bessemer hospital on the morning of July 23, although he considered the proposition that the worker could have lost consciousness and fallen because of a liver condition, alcohol withdrawal, and/or from use of the prescription medicine sildenafil citrate ("Viagra").

Under the Alabama Workers' Compensation Act, "[w]hen ... death is caused to an employee by an accident arising out of and in the course of [the] emp...