Cleary Bros. Const. Co. v. Nobles

Citation156 Fla. 408,23 So.2d 525
Decision Date05 October 1945
Docket Number35920.
PartiesCLEARY BROS. CONST. CO. et al. v. NOBLES.
CourtUnited States State Supreme Court of Florida

Rehearing Denied Oct. 31, 1945.

Appeal from Circuit Court, Palm Beach County; Jos. S. White judge.

Earnest Lewis & Smith, of West Palm Beach, for appellants.

O. S Miller, of West Palm Beach, for appellee.

SEBRING, Justice.

While engaged in unloading a railroad box car containing sacked cement, Aaron Nobles, a day laborer, collapsed and fell dead. His widow made claim for compensation under the Florida Workmen's Compensation Law. After a hearing on the merits the deputy commissioner denied the claim. On review the Florida Industrial Commission affirmed the order of the deputy commissioner. An appeal to the circuit court was taken from the order of the full commission. The circuit court reversed the order of the commission and allowed compensation on authority of Davis v. Artley Construction Company, 154 Fla. 481, 18 So.2d 255. The judgment of the circuit court is here on appeal.

The facts surrounding the death of Nobles are virtually undisputed: The deceased was employed by Cleary Brothers Construction Company as a day laborer. He was a large muscular man accustomed to hard physical labor. To all outward appearances he enjoyed good health. At about 4:30 o'clock on the morning of his death a crew of laborers employed by the construction company had opened up several box cars containing sacked cement and had begun unloading them. Nobles came to work at about 6:30 in the morning. His job was to help place sacks of cement on a hand truck which, when loaded, was rolled to the door of the box car by other laborers who there took the cement from the hand truck and loaded it on a waiting motor truck for delivery to a point where the employer was constructing an airport. Nobles was assisted by another laborer in his work of removing the sacked cement from where it was piled in the car and placing it on the hand truck; each grasping an end of a loaded sack and placing it on the hand truck rolled up beside them. Some 30 minutes after deceased came on the job the work was interrupted for the few moments necessary for a loaded truck to pull away from the car door and an empty truck to back up to the car to be loaded. During this short period Nobles, who was standing at the car door joking with the other laborers and mopping the perspiration from his brow suddenly toppled forward head first out of the car door, and fell to the ground. When his fellow workers reached him Nobles was unconscious and already dead or in a dying condition.

At the time of his collapse the deceased was suffering from nephro sclerosis, a kidney disease, and various heart...

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15 cases
  • Lewter v. Abercrombie Enterprises
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of North Carolina
    • 4 Junio 1954
    ...or extraordinary. These cases are in accord with ours: Pierce v. Phelps Dodge Corp., 42 Ariz. 436, 26 P.2d 1017; Cleary Brothers Const. Co. v. Nobles, 156 Fla. 408, 23 So.2d 525; Brooks-Scanlon, Inc., v. Lee, Fla., 44 So.2d 650; O'Neil v. W. R. Spencer Grocer Co., 316 Mich. 320, 25 N.W.2d 2......
  • Zundell v. Dade County School Bd., 91-1848
    • United States
    • Court of Appeal of Florida (US)
    • 15 Diciembre 1992
    ...of preexisting conditions occurred one year after the supreme court's holdings in Cline and Davis, when Cleary Bros. Const. Co. v. Nobles, 156 Fla. 408, 23 So.2d 525 (1945), was decided. In disapproving death benefits sought as a result of the employee's heart attack, and without referring ......
  • Gray v. Employers Mut. Liability Ins. Co.
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • 14 Noviembre 1952
    ...direct causal connection between the employment and the injury. The same failure of proof existed in the cases of Cleary Bros. Const. Co. v. Nobbles, 156 Fla. 408, 23 So.2d 525, and City of Tallahassee v. Roberts, 155 Fla. 815, 21 So.2d 712, relied upon by appellees in support of their cont......
  • Foxworth v. Florida Indus. Com'n
    • United States
    • United States State Supreme Court of Florida
    • 27 Mayo 1955
    ...do not arise out of the employment unless the employment contributes to the risk or aggravates the injury. Cleary Bros. Constr. Co. v. Nobles, 1945, 156 Fla. 408, 23 So.2d 525; Williamson v. Roy L. Willard, Inc., Fla.1952, 59 So.2d 865; Martin v. Board of County Commissioners, Fla.1955, 79 ......
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