Fidelity & Cas. Co. v. Adams

• Citation: 28 S.E.2d 79,70 Ga.App. 297
• Decision Date: 16 November 1943
• Docket Number: 30244,30245.
• Court: United States Court of Appeals (Georgia)
• Parties: FIDELITY & CASUALTY CO. et al. v. ADAMS. ADAMS v. FIDELITY & CASUALTY CO.

28 S.E.2d 79

70 Ga.App. 297

FIDELITY & CASUALTY CO. et al. v. ADAMS.

ADAMS v. FIDELITY & CASUALTY CO.

Nos. 30244, 30245.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

November 16, 1943

Rehearing Denied Dec. 9, 1943.

Syllabus by the Court.

This is an appeal from the judgment of Washington superior court reversing an award of the State Board of Workmen's Compensation which denied compensation to the employee's widow. On the hearing it was stipulated that the deceased was working 40 hours a week (four days of 10 hours each) at 36 cents an hour, and that the cause of the death was "heat stroke or heat exhaustion." The evidence was substantially as follows: The deceased employee, Eddie Adams was engaged in mining Kaolin which he did by driving a pin with a ten pound hammer. He worked in the pit from 7 a. m. until about 4 p. m. without going out of the pit. He ate his lunch in the pit. He went over and took a drink of water and fell out. The temperature in the pit was seven degrees higher than that outside. The deceased was not shown to have been suffering from any disease or infirmity which would render him more susceptible to a sun or heat stroke, or exhaustion than other employees who worked by his side. None of his fellow employees suffered a heat stroke. Water had accumulated in the bottom of the pit from rains. The finding of the single director, approved by the full board, was that a heat stroke, where the employee was not particularly exposed to such hazard by reason of his employment, did not arise out of the employment, that exhaustion caused by overwork is not an accident, and that the death was caused by an act of God and not an accidental injury.

John M. Slaton, James J. Slaton, and Lee Hutcheson, all of Atlanta, and J. J. Harris, of Sandersville, for plaintiff in error.

Miller & Miller, of Macon, for defendant in error.

FELTON Judge.

If decisions by this court hold to the contrary, including Burdick v. United States F. & G. Co., 54 Ga.App. 868, 188 S.E. 923; Jones v. American Mutual Liability Insurance Co., 45 Ga.App. 392, 165 S.E. 167, and United States Casualty Co. v. Henson, 43 Ga.App. 198, 158 S.E. 614, we are controlled by the principles announced, and the reasoning followed in the cases of Lumbermen's Mutual Casualty Co. v. Griggs, 190 Ga. 277, 9 S.E.2d 84, and Hardware Mutual Casualty Co. v. Sprayberry, 195 Ga 393, 24 S.E.2d 315. We do not think it can be questioned that physical exertion contributes to a heat stroke or exhaustion suffered while one is engaged in physical effort or immediately following. If the employment of the employee contributes to the injury it is an accident under our compensation law and is compensable, it matters not what...