Causey v. Kansas City Bridge Co.

• Decision Date: 09 November 1939
• Docket Number: 2038.
• Citation: 191 So. 730
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US
• Parties: CAUSEY v. KANSAS CITY BRIDGE CO. PENNINGTON ET AL. v. KANSAS CITY BRIDGE CO.

191 So. 730

CAUSEY v. KANSAS CITY BRIDGE CO.

PENNINGTON ET AL. v. KANSAS CITY BRIDGE CO.

No. 2038.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, First Circuit.

November 9, 1939

Appeal from Nineteenth Judicial District Court, Parish of East Baton Rouge; James D. Womack, Judge.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Mrs. Alice Edwards Causey, claimant, for the death of Ralph Causey employee, opposed by the Kansas City Bridge Company employer, and proceeding by Thelma Causey Pennington, tutrix for and on behalf of Nellie E. Causey, and others, claimants for the death of the employee, opposed by the Kansas City Bridge Company, employer, which were consolidated for trial. From judgments for the claimants, the employer appeals.

Affirmed.

Breazeale & Sachse, of Baton Rouge, for appellant.

Jos. A. Gladney and W. F. Gladney, both of Baton Rouge, for appellees.

DORE Judge.

These two suits were consolidated for trial. The first is on behalf of the widow of Ralph Causey, and the second on behalf of the tutrix of his minor children by a former marriage, to recover compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act, Act No. 20 of 1914, for his death alleged to have resulted from an injury sustained by him in the course of his employment by the defendant.

Both suits are based substantially on the allegations that on November 29, 1937, Ralph Causey was employed by the defendant company as a laborer in the building of the bridge across the Mississippi River at Baton Rouge; that on that date, while engaged in unloading large, heavy rocks or stones into the river to serve as a foundation for the bridge piers, he strained himself while lifting or pushing one of these heavy rocks, causing severe pain and serious injury in the lower abdominal region, resulting in the formation of a cancerous growth, or, in the alternative, in the aggravation and activation of a pre-existing but dormant cancerous growth in the lesser curvature of the stomach, from which he died on February 5, 1938.

The defense is substantially that Ralph Causey died solely from a malignant cancer which had no connection whatsoever with his employment or anything occurring during the course of his employment by the defendant.

Upon hearing the consolidated cases, the trial court found that Ralph Causey suffered an injury to his stomach when engaged in handling large, heavy stones on November 29, 1937, in the course of his employment by the defendant, and that this injury aggravated and activated a malignant growth, which Ralph Causey, unknown to him or anyone else, already had at the time of the accident, but which was in a dormant condition, causing the sleeping disease to suddenly flare up, producing immediate disability and greatly hastening Causey's death. On that finding of fact, the trial judge rendered judgments for the plaintiffs. The defendant has appealed.

It does not appear to be seriously contended that the cancerous growth, which was discovered some weeks after the date on which it is alleged the accident occurred, was caused by the injury claimed to have been sustained. All the medical testimony is to the effect that Ralph Causey on the date when it is claimed he was injured must necessarily have had a malignant cancer in his stomach. Nevertheless, if the finding of the lower court that this malignant cancer was in a dormant condition on November 29, 1937, and that as a result of an injury received by Ralph Causey in his employment on that date, this cancer was rendered active, which activation caused or hastened his death, is correct, then the plaintiffs are entitled to compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act....