Featherson v. Continental-Keller Co.

• Decision Date: 03 May 1938
• Docket Number: 44201.
• Citation: 279 N.W. 432,225 Iowa 119
• Parties: FEATHERSON v. CONTINENTAL-KELLER CO. et al.
• Court: Iowa Supreme Court

279 N.W. 432

225 Iowa 119

FEATHERSON v. CONTINENTAL-KELLER CO. et al.

No. 44201.

Supreme Court of Iowa.

May 3, 1938

Appeal from District Court, Pottawattamie County; John P. Tinley Judge.

This is an action in which the claimant, as the widow of William E Featherson, makes claim for workmen's compensation. Defendants deny that Featherson sustained injuries resulting in his death in the course of employment while working for the defendant company. On hearing before the deputy industrial commissioner the claim was denied on the ground that no accidental injury in the course of the employment caused death, and that claimant had not sustained the burden of proof imposed by law on her. On appeal to the commissioner this finding was sustained, and from the finding the case was appealed to the district court. There the decision of the commissioner was reversed. Defendants appeal to this court.

Reversed.

Kimball, Peterson, Smith & Peterson, of Council Bluffs, and Herbert E. Story, of Omaha, Neb., for appellants.

Roy W. Smith, of Council Bluffs, and Frank Dutton, of Lincoln, Neb., for appellee.

SAGER Justice.

We have so frequently expressed ourselves on the general principles applicable to the case before us that there is and can be little or no dispute between the parties as to such rules. The difficulty lies, as is to be expected, in the application of the facts to these rules. We have so many times spoken on this subject that it will be necessary to refer to but a very few of our later decisions, leaving the investigation of others to those who may be interested therein.

As a general proposition it will not be denied that the finding of the industrial commissioner on disputed questions of material fact is conclusive upon this and the district court.

Our views were well expressed by Powers, J., in Shepard v. Carnation Milk Co., 220 Iowa 466, appearing at pages 469, 470, 262 N.W. 110, 112, in this language:

" In the consideration of this question, the limitation upon the power of the court in compensation cases must be kept clearly in mind. The purpose of the enactment of such legislation was to avoid litigation, lessen the expense thereof, and afford an efficient and speedy tribunal to determine and award compensation. Flint v. City of Eldon, 191 Iowa 845, 183 N.W. 344. To that end the act provides that, in the absence of fraud, the findings of the industrial commissioner on the facts are conclusive. The act contemplates that all controversy over disputed questions of fact shall end with the findings of the industrial commissioner. Section 1452, Code 1931. It is not the province of the court to review the evidence and determine whether or not it believes that the industrial commissioner reached a correct conclusion on the facts. We may well repeat here what we said in the case of Flint v. City of Eldon, supra, by way of quotation from a New York case ( Rhyner v. Hueber Bldg. Co., 171 A.D. 56, 156 N.Y.S. 903):

‘ It was the purpose of the Legislature to create a tribunal to do rough justice-speedy, summary, informal, untechnical. With this scheme of the Legislature we must not interfere; for, if we trench in the slightest degree upon the prerogatives of the Commission, one encroachment will breed another, until finally simplicity will give way to complexity, and informality to technicality.’

The task of the court is to enforce this legislative scheme, not to interfere with it. If, therefore, there is evidence from which the industrial commissioner could have found as he did, the court must not interfere with such findings. Section 1453, Code 1931."

See, also, Brown v. Rath Packing Co., 219 Iowa 9, 257 N.W. 411; Jones v. Eppley Hotels Co., 208 Iowa 1281, 227 N.W. 153; Norman v. City of Chariton, 206 Iowa 790, 221 N.W. 481; Wittmer v. Dexter Mfg. Co., 204 Iowa 180, 214 N.W. 700.

With this brief attention to the rule, we turn to the record to ascertain whether or not there was a conflict in the evidence which entitles the finding of the commissioner to that conclusiveness which our cases announce. The record is quite confused and abounds in medical terms and medical opinions which seem not always consistent. This is said without any criticism of the doctors who testified, because such is to be expected from the uncertain factors with which they had to deal.

The injured workman was admittedly working for the defendant Continental-Keller Company, which is herein referred to as if it were the sole defendant. There is, as we read the record, no competent testimony establishing the fact that he was in fact injured at the time stated in the complaint, while engaged in work within the scope of his employment. It does appear that prior to the date of the injury he was and had been employed as a shipping clerk. Up to that time he had been in good health except for a previous case of pneumonia suffered some years before, from which he appears to have fully recovered.

The claimant testified that on May 22, 1934, her husband came home exhausted and tired, and said that he had had an accident at the store; that he had fallen while loading a rug. Her testimony made his condition appear much more serious than the doctors seem to have discovered at or shortly following that time. According to her, his leg was stiff and very red from the knee to the hip; the cords were stiff and drawn, and the leg generally was very painful. She applied hot water bottles to the leg, and gave aspirin to relieve him. The next morning there was a spot on the thigh, between the knee and the hip, about the size of claimant's hand. Featherson went to work in the morning, but came home between 12 and 1 o'clock, being brought there by one Himmelsher, a truck driver for the company. On his arrival he was " all in." He was put to bed. He said he had been told by the company doctor, Treynor, to come home and keep quiet, and that claimant was to put hot applications on the leg. This was done during the day. Aspirin was given without apparent results. About 9 o'clock in the evening, or shortly thereafter, he complained, grabbed his right side, and said, " The pain shot through here like a knife." Claimant narrated other symptoms of distress not necessary to set out. He complained of " feeling bad all over," and that his lung, leg, and groin were hurting him. He had fever during the day, and was very restless through the ensuing night. The next morning, May 23, 1934, he was stiff and his leg was black and blue, but he insisted on going to work. Dr. Treynor was called that day. He made an examination and told the wife that the leg was stiff and that there was congestion in the right lung. His temperature was 102 degrees. On the recommendation of Dr. Treynor, a Dr. Hanchett was called but, he being busy, Dr. Best appeared about 4 or 5 o'clock in the afternoon, made an examination of the patient, and took his temperature. The doctor came back the next morning, found the limb in the same condition it had been, and said that pneumonia had set in the right lung. The patient was then taken to the hospital, where he remained to the date of his death, June 4, 1934.

Dr. Treynor, differing somewhat from claimant, said that there were not any very definite signs of injury. Featherson complained of pain and stiffness, but examination disclosed no definite evidence of injury. There was tenderness on pressure. After the examination the doctor made a memorandum that the workman had a sprain of the posterior thigh muscle of the right leg, and possibly contusion of the sciatic nerve. The patient's condition appeared to this witness to be the same on the next day. He was not then treated for pneumonia by this doctor, who said that he did not know the patient had it.

Dr Best, in his examinations made on the 24th and 25th days of May, found a temperature of 101 or 102 degrees, shortness of breath, pain in the chest, and coughing up of a slightly rusty sputum. A small area about the size of the palm of the hand, and the type of breathing, disclosed to him symptoms of early pneumonia. The next day he found conditions about the same, but difficult breathing, with a few coarse rales which are typical of lobar pneumonia. Dr. Best's attention was centered upon the condition of the lungs more than the leg. After the patient was sent to the hospital Dr. Best continued to treat him until death. A hospital chart was kept of the patient. This chart appears in the record as Exhibit No. 13. Dr. Best, who diagnosed the cause of death as lobar pneumonia, said this is an infectious process which might be caused by numerous organisms, or might be caused by traumatism. He offered no opinion as to what caused the pneumonia in the instant case. When asked if he found any connection between traumatism and pneumonia, his answer was: " It is entirely a matter of opinion. I believe it would be impossible to state that a blow on the leg definitely produced the pneumonia." He then went on at length to discuss embolism (a blocking of blood vessels by a small clot). He testified that an embolus might lodge in the lung, and, when asked what the effect would be...