Golob v. Buckingham Hotel

• Decision Date: 07 April 1955
• Docket Number: No. 36514,36514
• Citation: 69 N.W.2d 636,244 Minn. 301
• Parties: Rose GOLOB, widow of Edward Golob, deceased employee, Respondent, v. BUCKINGHAM HOTEL, and Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Relators.
• Court: Minnesota Supreme Court

Page 636

69 N.W.2d 636

244 Minn. 301

Rose GOLOB, widow of Edward Golob, deceased employee, Respondent, v. BUCKINGHAM HOTEL, and Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Co., Relators.

No. 36514.

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

April 7, 1955.

Syllabus by the Court

Where doctors called as medical experts differ as to whether exertion involved in a particular case had a causal relationship to coronary thrombosis, determination of question ordinarily is for the Industrial Commission.

Roy J. Brumfield and Johnson, Sands & Brumfield, Minneapolis, for relators.

Nemerov & Perl, Minneapolis, for respondent.

KNUTSON, Justice.

Certiorari to review a decision of the Industrial Commission awarding compensation to dependent of a deceased employee.

Edward Golob was employed by the Buckingham Hotel as an upholsterer. On the morning of March 12, 1952, he left his home as usual. His wife saw nothing unusual about his appearance or conduct. About 11:30 or 12 o'clock, a resident of the hotel, Mrs. Geneva Mackey, saw him in the room in which he worked. He appeared to be his usual joking self. The room in which he worked was small, and pieces of furniture were piled up against the wall. Mrs. Mackey inquired about an ottoman which Golob was to fix. In an effort to locate the ottoman, he stood on a davenport and began to move some chairs which were piled up. The chairs he moved were overstuffed chairs of the type which go with a set. They were clumsy to handle, weighing about 40 to 45 pounds. When he had moved three or four of these chairs, he stopped abruptly, sat down on the davenport, winced, and clutched his hand to his chest. According to Mrs. Mackey, he looked very bad and his color changed to gray white. He was perspiring and breathing heavily. He said that he did not feel good. Mrs. Mackey saw him again a couple of hours later having a cup of coffee, and he then stated that he did not feel good and that he was going to go home.

Mrs. Ann Stephens, a fellow employee, saw Golob about 12:30 and again between 2 and 2:30 on the afternoon of March 12. Her testimony is that he did not look good and that his color was grayish. In response to her question as to what was the matter, he stated that he had hurt himself in lifting and got an awful pain in his heart and chest.

Prior to this occurrence, Golob had had some trouble with his back and had undergone two surgical operations for that trouble, but there was no evidence of any heart trouble.

Mr. Golob was found by another employee lying on the floor about four o'clock. He was then dead or died before he could receive any medical attention.

The referee made findings in favor of employee's dependent. On appeal, the commission affirmed without making independent findings or writing an opinion in connection therewith.

It is conceded by all that employee died of a coronary thrombosis. The only issue here is whether there is evidence of a causal relationship between the thrombosis and his employment.

Employer contends (1) that the findings of the referee are based on the testimony of Mrs. Mackey and that her testimony is so inconsistent, contradictory, and improbable that it cannot be accepted as a basis for the findings; (2) that the activities of employee on the day in question did not involve such an undue exertion as to constitute an accidental injury within the compensation act; and (3) that under the medical testimony the exertion here involved could not have been a causal factor in the formation of the coronary thrombosis causing death.

1. Mrs. Mackey first testified quite generally as to what she observed. When the first medical witness was called, an attempt to elicit his opinion based on a hypothetical question was met by continued objection due to insufficiency of the evidence as to the exertion occasioned by the employee's activities. Mrs. Mackey thereafter was recalled and testified more in detail. Employer now contends that her testimony on these two occasions is so contradictory and inconsistent as to be unworthy of belief. We have carefully examined the testimony of Mrs. Mackey, and it would serve no purpose to unduly lengthen this opinion by setting it forth in detail. It is enough to say that the credibility of witnesses is for the trier of fact and that the testimony of Mrs. Mackey is not such that it must be held as a matter of law to be unworthy of belief. The rule that 'If the testimony of an unimpeached witness is so improbable or contains so many contradictions as to furnish substantial reasons for believing it to be false, such testimony may be disregarded,' ¹ which employer seeks to invoke here, is a rule to be applied by the fact finders, not by this court on appeal.

2. Whether trauma or exertion can ever cause a coronary thrombosis and, if so, whether the exertion here involved did have a causal relationship to the admitted thrombosis may as well be considered together.

Four doctors testified as medical experts. As is quite common in this type of case, they differ as to whether the exertion shown to have...