Burns v. Bakelite Corp.

• Court: New Jersey Superior Court — Appellate Division
• Writing for the Court: BIGELOW
• Citation: Burns v. Bakelite Corp., 17 N.J.Super. 441, 86 A.2d 289 (N.J. Super. App. Div. 1952)
• Decision Date: 07 February 1952
• Docket Number: No. A--537,A--537
• Parties: BURNS v. BAKELITE CORP.

Page 441

17 N.J.Super. 441

86 A.2d 289

BURNS v. BAKELITE CORP.

No. A--537.

Superior Court of New Jersey, Appellate Division.

Argued Jan. 28, 1952.

Decided Feb. 7, 1952.

Aaron Gordon, Jersey City, argued the cause for appellant (Greenstone & Greenstone, Newark, attorneys).

Robert Shaw, Newark, argued the cause for respondent (Shaw, Hughes & Pindar, Newark, attorneys).

Before Judges JACOBS, EASTWOOD and BIGELOW.

The opinion of the court was delivered by

BIGELOW, J.A.D.

The administratrix of the estate of Joseph Burns, deceased, alleging that decedent's death was caused by the negligence of his employer, the Bakelite Corporation, sues for damages. At the plant where decedent worked, the company maintained a dispensary or first aid station in charge of a registered nurse, Mrs. Broadie. It is the alleged negligence of the nurse on which the administratrix counts. The learned judge before whom the action was tried in the Law Division, took the case from the jury and rendered judgment for the defendant, whereupon the administratrix appeals.

Mrs. Broadie, testifying for plaintiff, said that Burns came to the dispensary about 10 o'clock on a certain morning, pale and perspiring, and the nurse thought he looked ill. He complained of a severe chest pain and thought he had indigestion and he wanted peppermint for it. Mrs. Broadie took his pulse and his temperature, and found both were normal. He had no difficulty in walking. The nurse suggested he see a doctor, but he refused to see the plant doctor whose office was only about two blocks away, and he asked for his own physician, Dr. MacArthur. Mrs. Broadie tried unsuccessfully to reach him by phone. Then Burns asked her to send him home, so she summoned a car, a station wagon, and he was driven by the company's chauffeur to his home where he was received by his wife, who happened to be a trained nurse. By the removal of one of the station wagon seats, room could have been made for a stretcher, but Burns was not put on a stretcher. Mrs. Broadie reached Dr. MacArthur soon after decedent left the plant but he was engaged in an operation and had a colleague, Dr. Froelich, call immediately at decedent's home. The doctor diagnosed him as suffering from a coronary occlusion, that is, a block in one of the larger vessels of the heart. Later the same day, Dr. Froelich called a second time and had his patient taken to a hospital where, after six days, he died.

Generally, no duty rests on an employer to provide medical service or care for an ill or injured employee. Yet when the employee, while engaged in the work of his master, suffers a sudden illness that renders him unable to provide for his own care, the employer must put in his reach such medical care and other assistance as the emergency thus created may in reason require. The duty arises out of necessity. Szabo v. Pennsylvania R.R. Co., 131 N.J.L. 238, 36 A.2d 8 (Sup.Ct.1944), reversed 132 N.J.L. 331, 40 A.2d 562 (E. & A.1945). We think that decedent's condition and Mrs. Broadie's knowledge of his illness were sufficient to raise a duty in defendant to take reasonable precautions for his care. Or the same result may be reached in the present case, without regard to the existence of an emergency, on the principle that one who voluntarily renders service to another is liable in damages for injuries caused by a failure to use reasonable care in the performance of such gratuitous service. Bascho v. Pennsylvania R.R. Co., 3 N.J.Super. 86, 65 A.2d 613 (App.Div.1949). The question then arises whether defendant fulfilled this duty.

The symptoms that the nurse observed were typical of the onset of a heart attack, although they might indicate acute indigestion or some other condition. But a physician would probably have made a tentative diagnosis of a 'coronary occlusion' because that is the most common cause of such symptoms....