Bucyrus Company v. Townsend

• Decision Date: 16 November 1917
• Docket Number: 10,033
• Citation: 117 N.E. 656,65 Ind.App. 687
• Parties: BUCYRUS COMPANY v. TOWNSEND ET AL
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

117 N.E. 656

65 Ind.App. 687

BUCYRUS COMPANY v. TOWNSEND ET AL

No. 10,033

Court of Appeals of Indiana

November 16, 1917

From the Industrial Board of Indiana.

Proceedings for compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Daisy Townsend and others against the Bucyrus Company. From an award for applicant, the defendant appeals.

Affirmed.

Phelps F. Darby, for appellant.

Elmer Q. Lockyear, for appellees.

OPINION

IBACH, P. J.

Appellees' husband and father was an employe of appellant company, and while so employed it is claimed he received a serious personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, from which he died on August 8 1916. On February 3, 1917, appellees, as dependents of decedent, filed their verified application before the Industrial Board for an adjustment of their claim for compensation, which was granted, and they were awarded $ 7.29 per week for 300 weeks.

It is contended by appellant that the award of the full board is not sustained by sufficient evidence and is contrary to law. The latter assignment presents both questions. Union Sanitary Mfg. Co. v. Davis (1916), 64 Ind.App 227, 115 N.E. 676, 677.

The facts appearing from the finding are that on August 1, 1916, decedent was in the employ of appellant at an average weekly wage of $ 13.26. On that date he received a personal injury by an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, which resulted in his death August 8, 1916; that the appellant had actual knowledge of his injury at the time it occurred, and that it rendered first aid at the time of his injury and on the second day thereafter furnished an attending physician who attended him at the hospital until his death. He left surviving him Daisy Townsend, his wife, and the other named appellees, his children. Decedent and his wife and children were at the time of his injury and death living together as one family. Two sons, Elma and Alvis, were working and earning wages, and the wife and the other children being wholly dependent upon decedent for their support.

It appears from the record that the decedent had been in the employ of appellant for several weeks prior to August 1 1916, on what is termed a "band press," a machine used to press a copper band around shells and the shells were shrapnel shells about eight inches in diameter and two and one-half feet long. The band press is about three and one-half feet high. On the floor there was an iron T-rail extending about an inch above the level of the floor. The decedent took a shell and started to the press. His foot slipped on the T-rail as he was about to lay the shell down, and he fell and hit his breast against the lever that operated the press. This lever consisted of an iron rod about an inch in diameter with a steel handle, and was used for starting and stopping the machine. Decedent was taken to his home that night and immediately went to bed complaining of pain in his left side and had...