Hoerner Waldorf Corp. v. Alford, 73--99
| Decision Date | 05 November 1973 |
| Docket Number | No. 73--99,73--99 |
| Citation | 255 Ark. 431,500 S.W.2d 758 |
| Parties | HOERNER WALDORF CORPORATION and Insurance Company of North America, Appellants, v. Carl Lee ALFORD, Appellee. |
| Court | Arkansas Supreme Court |
Smith, Williams, Friday, Eldredge & Clark by George Pike, Jr., Little Rock, for appellants.
McMath, Leatherman & Woods, Little Rock, for appellee.
This is a workmen's compensation case and the question on appeal is whether there is any substantial evidence to sustain the Commission's finding that the claimant-appellee's heart attack and resulting disability grew out of, and occurred within the course of, his employment as a truck driver.
Carl Lee Alford was 58 years of age when on September 13, 1971, he suffered a severe heart attack while driving a truck-trailer rig on a return trip to Little Rock from Rossville, Tennessee, where he had delivered a truckload of corrugated paper boxes bound up in 500 pound bales. Mr. Alford had worked for the appellant-employer, Hoerner Waldorf Corporation, for approximately 20 years, the first five years as a 'slitter operator,' 1 and the last 15 years as a truck driver. He had been hospitalized and treated for a hiatal hernia but that condition is of no importance in this case except as it relates to Mr. Alford's complaints as hereinafter set out. The heart attack suffered by Mr. Alford on September 13 was diagnosed as a my-ocardial infarction and the correctness of that diagnosis is not questioned.
It was Mr. Alford's contention before the Commission that the stress and strain of the work he performed as a truck driver brought about his heart attack on the day in question and aggravated his preexisting coronary atherosclerosis to the point of a myocardial infarction and permanent disability. The appellant-employer and its compensation insurance carrier contended that Mr. Alford's heart attack on September 13 was a natural result of his progressive degenerative heart disease and was unrelated to his occupation as a truck driver. The Commission found in favor of Alford and awarded compensation for a 70% permanent partial disability in addition to medical benefits that normally follow an award in favor of the claimant. The award of the Commission was affirmed by the circuit court so the employer and insurance carrier contend on this appeal that the 'claimant failed to sustain his burden of proving by substantial evidence that there was any causal relationship between his driving the truck and his heart attack.'
Mr. Alford testified by deposition as well as in person before the Referee. He said that September 13 was on a Monday and he did not work on the 11th or 12th. He said he just sat around the house on Saturday and Sunday and did not recall having any chest pains on Saturday or Sunday. He said on Sunday afternoon he became drowsy and felt tired and worn-out. He said he started to call his employer to get someone else to work in his place on Monday but thought he might get to feeling better so he decided to go ahead and go to work Monday. He said that he got up about 1:30 or 2:00 o'clock on Monday morning and reported to work; that his trailer was already loaded and he attached the tractor to the trailer and left on his assigned trip for the delivery of merchandise to Rossville, Tennessee. He said he stopped in Palestine, Arkansas, for breakfast and delivered his cargo in Rossville at 7 a.m. He said that prior to stopping in Palestine, he had 'a kind of heavy feeling' in his chest but thought it would pass and didn't say anything to anyone about it. He said his cargo consisted of cardboard boxes bound up in bales weighing approximately 500 pounds; that when he arrived in Rossville, the bundles were unloaded with a forklift and he assisted the forklift operator in pulling over about 10 of the bundles so that the folklift could get under them. He said the heaviness he felt in his chest between Palestine and Rossville had lightened up on his return trip to Little Rock but that after he came through Memphis, Tennessee, and West Memphis, pain in his chest started getting worse and that between Palestine and Wheatley, Arkansas, about two hours after heleft Rossville, he had to pull to the side of the highway and stop. He then testified as follows:
Mr. Alford said two other truck drivers employed by the same company stopped and offered to bring him on in to Little Rock but he managed to bring his own truck to Little Rock. He said that after delivering his truck back to his place of employment, he went home and a day or so later was hospitalized under the treatment of Dr. William B. Bishop.
At the hearing before the Referee, Mr. Alford described his attack in more detail. He said that when he pulled his truck to the shoulder of the highway and stopped, he first laid over on his steering wheel and then got so sick he had to get out of his truck and vomit. He said that for a short time after he stopped he felt dizzy and did not know what he was doing. He said this condition soon cleared up but the pain in his chest never did cease or get any better. He described the attack as starting with sharp pain in his chest under his breast bone. He said it just kept getting worse and worse and he then testified as follows:
'When it did hit me it was a solid jolt. It just felt like someone stomped me in the chest . . . I had been hit in my chest with a bale of hay and it kind of felt like that. . . . then I knew there was something wrong with me. I had never had that to happen to me before.
Q. Now you had never had this particular type of pain before?
A. I never had.
Q. Now had you ever had any pains in your stomach or in your chest area before?
A. Yes, sir.
Q. Were they anything like this?
A. Never was, no, sir.'
He said he had previously experienced pain in his stomach and chest on several occasions when he was in the hospital with a hiatal hernia. He said when his chest pains first started on the 13th, he thought perhaps it was the same thing, but it didn't start hurting in his stomach as it usually did. He said the pain started in his chest on the 13th; that it was of a different nature than he had previously experienced and when it grew worse, he knew it was not from his stomach or hernia. He said after he left Rossville on his return trip to Little Rock, the pain in his chest really started hurting bad and then kept getting worse.
Mr. Robert Cearley, production manager for the appellant-employer, testified that Mr. Alford was an excellent employee. He said Alford worked about five years as a slitter operator in the plant before being assigned to driving a truck.
Both the truck drivers who came upon Mr. Alford while he was stopped at the side of the highway on his return to Little Rock, testified that he was deathly sick, complaining of pain and said that nothing like that had ever happened to him before.
Orville Jenson, another truck driver for the appellant-employer, testified that a driver of a truck-trailer rig is under constant pressure in keeping a lookout to prevent accidents and that there is a lot of heavy physical exertion involved in such work.
Dr. William B. Bishop did not testify but his letter-report dated January 26 1972, directed to Mr. Alford's attorney, was introduced into evidence without objection. Dr. Bishop stated that Mr. Alford had been under his treatment since September 16, 1971, and in his opinion Mr. Alford had advanced arteriosclerotic heart disease with angina on exertion. Dr. Bishop stated that Mr. Alford most likely had an intramural myocardial infarction which precipitated his hospitalization from September 16 through October 11, 1971. He said that in addition, Mr. Alford had symptoms of vertebral basilar artery insufficiency. It was his opinion that Mr. Alford would be unable to resume any occupation which would require any type of physical activity 'including pulling, hauling, lifting, standing or walking over a protracted period of time.' Dr. Bishop concluded his report with a statement as follows:
'In that Mr. Alford's initial symptoms occurred while he was driving a truck during the course of his occupation, I would have to presume that his pre-existing condition was aggravated by his driving the truck.'
At the request of the compensation insurance carrier, Mr. Alford was examined by Dr. Alfred Kahn, Jr. who reported the results of his examination and also testified by deposition. Dr. Kahn expressed the opinion that there was no causal connection between Mr. Alford's work and his heart attack on September 13. The Commission, however, was entitled to consider and weigh all of Dr. Kahn's testimony together with all the other evidence in arriving at its decision as to where the preponderance lies. Dr. Kahn's examination was so thorough, and his testimony so important to the question before us, we feel justifed in quoting his testimony at some length. Dr. Kahn's report reads in part as follows:
'It is my opinion based on Mr. Alford's history, physical examination, laboratory work performed elsewhere and performed here that Mr. Alford probably had an acute myocardial infarction while he was driving his truck as described in the present illness. * * * A myocardial infarction means death of heart muscle which in turn is the result of an inadequate blood flow through the coronary arteries. This inadequacy of blood flow through the coronary arteries is the result of a progressive degenerative disease seen...
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