Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Hudson, 1031

Decision Date13 May 1959
Docket NumberNo. 1031,1031
Citation112 So.2d 29
PartiesFIRESTONE TIRE & RUBBER COMPANY and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, Petitioner, v. James W. HUDSON and Florida Industrial Commission, Respondents.
CourtFlorida District Court of Appeals

David J. Kadyk and Charles F. Clark, of Macfarlane, Ferguson, Allison & Kelly, Tampa, for petitioners.

Robert J. McDermott, Clearwater, Burnis T. Coleman and Paul E. Speh, Tallahassee, for respondents.

SHANNON, Judge.

This is an application for certiorari directed to the Florida Industrial Commission by the employer and its insurance carrier. The deputy commissioner entered an order finding that the employee's disability was not causally connected with his employment and denied compensation. The Full Industrial Commission affirmed the deputy's findings that the employee's initial coronary attack had no causal connection with his work but remanded the cause for further proceedings as to an award of compensation for that portion of the employee's disability caused by acceleration or aggravation of the heart condition as a result of his continued employment after the initial coronary.

In his order the deputy commissioner found that any permanent partial disability which the employee suffered was not due to an accident arising out of or in the course of his employment. The Full Commission in its order found:

'Claimant has applied for a review from this Order, urging essentially that the Deputy erred by not finding any portion of claimant's permanent partial disability to be due to an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. But for the decision by our Supreme Court in Czepial v. Krohne Roofing Co., Fla.1957, 93 So.2d 84, we would be of the opinion that the Deputy Commissioner's Order accords with the essential requirements of law; however, in the Czepial case, our Supreme Court held that claimant would be entitled to compensation for disability caused by the aggravation of a pre-existing condition. * * *

'By the same token, the evidence in the instant cause indicates that although the claimant's coronary was not occasioned by his employment, and the Deputy so found, there was an aggravation of the disability caused initially by the coronary, and we are of the opinion that under authority of the Czepial case, supra, the claimant is entitled to compensation for that portion of the disability caused by the acceleration or aggravation of his condition as a result of his continued employment. * * *.'

In the Czepial v. Krohne Roofing Company case, Fla.1957, 93 So.2d 84, the Supreme Court held that where a roofer's constant inhalation of dust and fumes contributed to the acceleration or aggravation of a pre-existing tubercular condition, the roofer suffered an injury by 'accident', and he was entitled to compensation from his employer in whose employment the injurious exposure occurred. In the instant case the claimant had worked approximately ten years as a btakeman for the Firestone Tire & Rubber Company. Some of the duties of the claimant were adjusting and relining brakes, working with master cylinders, repairing tires, which included their removal from and replacement on rims, and installing new tires. While he was changing a tire in the early part of December 1955, he suffered a pain in his chest. He continued to work until about the middle of December, at which time his condition was diagnosed as myocardial infarction. After lengthy hearings and testimony of some four doctors the deputy commissioner entered the order to which we have referred. As the matter now stands, claimant's coronary attack was not an 'accident' arising out of and in the course of his employment, but the order of the full commission, sending the case back to the deputy commissioner for the entry of an award if the employee's subsequent work for approximately one week tended to aggravate or accelerate the pre-existing heart condition, in effect construes the law to be that an aggravation or acceleration of a non-compensable injury, incurred during the performance of one's ordinary duties which involve no condition to which the public generally is not ordinarily exposed, is such an 'accident' and is compensable.

In the Czepial v, Krohne Roofing Company case, supra , our Supreme Court had this to say:

'Under the facts, as found by both the Deputy Commissioner and the Full Commission, claimant's pre-existing tubercular condition was accelerated or aggravated by his continued work and failure to have care and rest, together with his inhalation of dust and fumes to which the public generally is not ordinarily exposed. There was thus found to be a direct causal connection between claimant's injury and the exposure to a danger not ordinarily risked by the public (the inhalation of dust and fumes) even though this was not found to be the sole cause of his disability.

'We re-affirm the rule of Orr, Jr., Inc. v. Florida Industrial Commission, supra, 176 So. 172, that 'excessive exposure may be found to have been the direct cause of the injury, though operating upon other conditions of common exposure', and we agree with the decisions from other jurisdictions, cited above, holding in effect that the fundamentally accidental nature of the injury is not altered by the fact that, instead of a single occurrence, it is the cumulative effect of the inhalation of dust and fumes to which a claimant is peculiarly susecptible that accelerates a claimant's...

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6 cases
  • Victor Wine & Liquor, Inc. v. Beasley, 30872
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • May 3, 1961
    ...work was arduous, is not sufficient, within itself, to make out a case for recovery * * *'. In a later case, Firestone Tire & Rubber Company v. Hudson, Fla.App., 112 So.2d 29, where the court denied compensation to a claimant who had suffered a heart attack while at his usual strenuous job ......
  • Martin Co. v. Carpenter, 40075
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • July 26, 1961
    ...work, even after the onset of the increased pain, did not constitute an accident under the * * *' case of Firestone Tire & Rubber Company v. Hudson, Fla.App.1959, 112 So.2d 29. In his order the deputy stated that the falsification of the Physical Examination Record was sufficient to overcom......
  • Harris v. Foster Prestress, Inc., 31879
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • April 24, 1963
    ...The writ of certiorari is denied on the authority of Kress & Co. v. Burkes, 153 Fla. 868, 16 So.2d 106; Firestone Tire and Rubber Company v. Hudson, Fla.App., 112 So.2d 29; Martin Company v. Carpenter, Fla., 132 So.2d 400; Thomas v. Carter Fruit and Produce Company, Fla., 137 So.2d It is so......
  • Richardson v. Honeywell, Inc.
    • United States
    • Florida Supreme Court
    • April 20, 1966
    ...that the claimant was subject to over-exertion. The court in that case specifically considered the case of Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Hudson, Fla.App.1959, 112 So.2d 29, relied on by the order of the Full Commission in this case. In reaching its decision on rehearing, the court used the......
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