Conley v. State Comp. Comm'r

• Decision Date: 10 September 1929
• Docket Number: (No. 6511)
• Citation: 107 W.Va. 546
• Parties: Pauline M. Conley, Admx., etc. v. State CompensationCommissioner
• Court: West Virginia Supreme Court

107 W.Va. 546

Pauline M. Conley, Admx., etc.

v. State CompensationCommissioner

(No. 6511)

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

Submitted September 4, 1929.

Decided September 10, 1929.

Workmen's Compensation Act.

The Workmen's Compensation Act, being remedial, should be construed liberally.

Appeal from Compensation Appeal Board.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Pauline M. Conley, Administratrix, etc., opposed by the Workmen"s Compensation Commissioner and others.

Reversed.

Rollb J. Conley and Joseph G. Conley, for appellant. Howard B. Lee, Attorney General, and R. Dennis Steed, Assistant Attorney General, for the State.

Hatcher, Judge:

This appeal involves the claim of H. R. Scranage for workmen's compensation. It is based on an alleged injury to his heart from the inhalation of carbon monoxide gas while in the course of his employment by the Maryland Coal Company. The company is a subscriber to the Workmen's Compensation fund. The claim was denied by the Compensation Commissioner, and an appeal taken to the Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board. Mr. Scrange died while his appeal was pending there. The Legislature abolished that board before it acted on the claim. Pauline M. Conley was appointed administratrix of his estate as well as guardian of his only child, and she prosecutes the appeal in this Court.

The Commissioner moves to dismiss the appeal because application therefor was not made to this Court within ninety days after notice of the final action of the Commissioner as provided by section 43, Chapter 15P, Code. The appeal to the Appeal Board was taken within the ninety days. While that Board was without jurisdiction to hear the cause (see Acts, 1925, Chapter 68, Section 57), the appeal thereto shows that the claimant had not abandoned his demand but was prosecuting it as best he knew how. We have held that the Workmen's Compensation Act should be construed liberally and not strictly. Caldwell v. Compensation Commissioner, 106 W. Va. 14, 18. We are, therefore, of opinion that the claimant should not lose his right of appeal here when in good faith he secured a timely appeal before the wrong tribunal.

The Commissioner further contends that under Acts 1925, Chapter 68, section 31, the petitioner here has no right as administratrix to the fund claimed. That may be true, but she does have such right as guardian, which appointment she also holds.

Mr. Scrange was soldering spouting with a gasoline soldering torch. He testified that on the first day he used the torch he experienced nervousness and headache, and on the second day he suffered so severely that he had to stop work. He was treated at the time by Dr. C. M. Ramage, of Fairmont, who testified that Mr. Scranage was suffering from carbon monoxide poisoning; that he had ''dilitation of the heart, poor action of the valves and weak and rapid beat of the heart"; and that the injury was permanent. The doctor was of opinion that the injury was due to the carbon monoxide poisoning.

After the claim was filed, Mr. Scranage was examined by Dr. B. M. Chenoweth of Wendel, who is the physician for the Maryland Coal Company, and by Dr. D. C. Peck of Grafton, These physicians deposed that they found Mr. Scranage suffering from a mitral stenosis which is "an infection of the mitral valve of the heart". They attributed his condition to an attack of inflamatory rheumatism which he had when about eight years old, and were of opinion that such heart...