Aniel v. State Comp. Comm'r.

• Decision Date: 25 October 1932
• Docket Number: (No. 7409)
• Citation: 112 W.Va. 645
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court
• Parties: Prank Aniel v. State Compensation Commissioner.

112 W.Va. 645

Prank Aniel

v.State Compensation Commissioner.

(No. 7409)

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted October 18, 1932.

Decided October 25, 1932.

Master and Servant

"The finding' of fact by the Compensation Commissioner should be treated as the finding of a judge, or the verdict of a jury, and will not, as a general rule, be set aside if there is substantial evidence to support it." Heaton v. Compensation Commissioner, 108 W. Va. 563, 146 S. E,. 368.

Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Frank Aniel opposed by the State Compensation Commissioner. From an order of the commissioner denying compensation, claimant appeals.

Affirmed.

Martin &Martin, for appellant.

H. B. Lee, Attorney General, and B. Dennis Steed, Assistant Attorney General, for respondent.

Lively, Judge:

Claimant, Frank Aniel, a miner employed by Alpha-Pocahontas Coal Company, alleges an injury resulting in hernia. Compensation was denied on the ground that the hernia is an old one and not of recent origin.

According to claimant, on July 6, 1931, immediately after lifting a lump of coal, he experienced a pain in the right groin and a rupture appeared, necessitating cessation of employment as a miner which he has not since been able to resume. Other employees witnessed the hernia at the time of the alleged injury. Claimant admits a prior operation for hernia in France about 1905, but asserts that there had been no recurrence of that rupture prior to July 6, 1931. Witnesses who had seen claimant in a nude condition just a short time before that date (one witness says two days before) and who had noted the scar caused by the old hernia operation testified they saw no evidence of the former rupture. As corroborative of his assertion, claimant introduced a written order signed by T. W. Heironimus, Jr., a physician employed by the coal company, which reads: '' Frank Aniel was ruptured July 6 while loading coal and is entitled to hospital care under company contract with Mullens Hospital." Claimant testified further that Dr. Heironimus had examined him on several occasions prior to July 6, 1931, and had said nothing concerning the old hernia.

Dr. Heironimus, in a written statement made before the inspector for the compensation department, stated that shortly after he became employed as the company physician in October, 1929, Aniel complained to him of the old rupture and that "it had broken through and was giving him trouble." At this time, the rupture was about...