Gillam v. State Comp. Comm'r, No. 7534.

• Court: Supreme Court of West Virginia
• Writing for the Court: MAXWELL, President
• Citation: 169 S.E. 397
• Parties: GILLAM. v. STATE COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER et al.
• Decision Date: 18 April 1933
• Docket Number: No. 7534.

169 S.E. 397

GILLAM.
v.
STATE COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER et al.

No. 7534.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

April 18, 1933.

[169 S.E. 397]

Rehearing Denied June 3, 1933.

Syllabus by the Court.

"Where the facts concerning a claim for compensation, arising under the Workmen's Compensation Act, are not sufficiently developed by evidence to enable the commissioner or the court to arrive at the real merits of the claim, an order may be entered here recommitting the case to the commissioner for further development." Holland v. Compensation Commissioner (W. Va.) 165 S. E. 675.

Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Sarah Gillam to recover compensation for death of John Gillam, her husband, opposed by the Charleston Laundry Company. From an order of the State Compensation Commissioner, refusing compensation, the claimant appeals.

Order reversed, and case remanded, with directions.

Salisbury & Lopinsky, of Charleston, for appellant.

Homer A. Holt, Atty. Gen., and R. Dennis Steed, Asst. Atty. Gen., for Compensation Commissioner.

V. L. Black, of Charleston, for Charleston Laundry Co.

MAXWELL, President.

Sarah Gillam appeals from an order of the compensation commissioner refusing compensation on account of the death of her husband, John Gillam, on the ground that the disability causing his death was not the result of an injury received in the course of and resulting from his employment.

Gillam was scalded on the left arm, face and right foot November 15, 1929, while in the employ of the Charleston Laundry Company. He later contracted pneumonia and died thereof December 10, 1929. The question for determination is whether pneumonia resulted from the burns.

Dr. Joseph Horsham of Charleston testified that he treated Gillam frequently for bronchial asthma in 1928; that he was called to his home November 17, 1929, where he treated him for skin burns, resulting from scalding; that when he visited Gillam two days later there were "patches" of bronchial pneumonia in both lungs; that the burns healed within seven or eight days; and that he attributed Gillam's death to the burns, "complicated" by bronchial pneumonia. With respect to the bronchial pneumonia which the decedent contracted, the doctor said: "In this case, it was a more or less secondary thing, with the burns, with the local infection. There are always some germs in the deep layer of the skin, and the opening up, when he had a slight infection, caused it." Dr. Phillip Preiser of Charleston,...