I.B.S. Mfg. Co. v. Dependents of Cook

• Decision Date: 22 May 1961
• Docket Number: No. 41753,41753
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: I. B. S. MANUFACTURING COMPANY and U. S. F. & G. Company, v. DEPENDENTS OF Mrs. Paul (Bithy) COOK.

Page 557

130 So.2d 557

241 Miss. 256

I. B. S. MANUFACTURING COMPANY and U. S. F. & G. Company, v. DEPENDENTS OF Mrs. Paul (Bithy) COOK.

No. 41753.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

May 22, 1961.

Smallwood, Darden & Sumners, New Albany, for appellants.

J. A. Travis, Jr., Barney Eaton III, Jackson, J. E. Boone, New Albany, for appellee.

KYLE, Justice.

This case is before us on appeal by I.B.S. Manufacturing Company, of New Albany, Mississippi, employer, and United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, its insurance carrier, from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Union County affirming an order of the Workmen's Compensation Commission awarding death benefits to the six minor children of Mrs. Paul (Bithy) Cook, an employee of I.B.S. Manufacturing Company, whose death occurred on May 28, 1957. The cause of death, stated on the death certificate, was pulmonary edema, congestive heart failure--heart disease, type undetermined.

The record shows that Mrs. Cook, who was known as Inez Bithy Cook, was born on February 25, 1921; that she was married to James Paul Cook on July 30, 1938; and that seven children were born of the marriage, six of whom were living at the time of their mother's death. The oldest living child was Betty Lou who was born on August 2, 1941. The youngest child, Nelta Marie, was born July 28, 1954. Mrs. Cook was 36 years of age at the time of her death. Her husband, at the time of her death, was engaged in farming as a sharecropper on land owned by Marlin Stack in Union County.

The record shows that Mrs. Cook filed an application for employment with I.B.S. Manufacturing Company, which was operating a garment factory at New Albany, Mississippi, on April 4, 1957. Prior to that time she had never done any type of work except farm work. In the application form which she signed there appears the following questions and answers: 'Have you ever had heart trouble?' Answer, No. 'Have you been to a doctor lately?' Answer, No. No physical examination was required of the applicant before she was employed. She began work at the garment factory on April 8, 1957. The job assigned to her was setting cuffs in the sewing department. She was absent from the plant four days beginning April 23 and ending April 26. On April 29 she returned to work, and she made a statement at the office that she was suffering from nervousness and had seen Dr. R. E. Shands. On April 30 she was assigned to work tacking sleeves, and continued to work at that job through Thursday, May 23. She was unable to return to work at the garment plant on May 24. She was carried to the hospital on May 27, and died about 7:15 Tuesday evening, May 28.

James Paul Cook testified that his wife went to work at the garment factory on April 8, because she had to work to help provide for the family; that his crop for the preceding year was short, and when the crop was gathered he came out in debt to Mr. Stack; and that he and the children were dependent upon her earnings for a living. Cook stated that prior to the time that his wife went to work at the garment plant she was 'doing pretty well', so far as her physical condition was concerned. She went to the Shands Hospital on April 23, because she had some kind of nervous spell. She returned to her work at the plant the next week; but when she came home in the evening she was very nervous, and seemed like she was 'all wrecked up.' The last Tuesday that she worked, which was Tuesday May 22, she came home and lay down on the bed, and she told him that she 'had a spell--just a blackout is all I know,' while she was at work at her machine at the garment factory, and that one of the ladies carried her to the plant nurse, and the nurse laid her on a cot, and that was all she knew about it. Cook stated that his wife's breath was short after that; that she complained about a hurting in the chest, and when she came in from the factory the last day that she worked, her feet were swollen and her legs were pretty well swollen up to the waist; that she became nauseated when she tried to eat and complained of a hurting in her chest; and that her breath was short. She was carried to the hospital on Monday, May 27, and died about twenty-four hours later. On cross-examination Cook admitted that his wife had been sick at times, that she had had flu and pneumonia, and that she had one weak lung. But he insisted that he did not know that she had had a heart condition for a number of years.

Mrs. Janie Maybelle Wells testified that she worked at the garment plant during the year 1957, and that she worked with Mrs. Cook during the week ending May 25, 1957; that the work Mrs. Cook was doing was cuff stitching; that during the last few weeks of her life Mrs. Cook appeared to be losing weight; that Mrs. Cook talked to her at the noon hour the last two days she worked; and that Mrs. Cook told her that she was sick and nauseated, and that one could see that she was sick; that Mrs. Cook's feet and legs were swollen. Mrs. Wells stated that Mrs. Cook told her that she had some kind of spell, probably fainted when she was at work, and she didn't know anything, and when she came to herself, the nurse and supervisors were with her and carried her to the nurse's office; that she had that spell the last week that she worked. On cross-examination Mrs. Wells stated that Mrs. Cook told her that it was hard for her to meet the production schedule, that she had to put everything she had in it to meet the production schedule. On cross-examination Mrs. Wells stated that her own work at the plant was cuff setting, which was a kind of slow, steady work; that the work which Mrs. Cook was doing was cuff stitching; and that was a harder job than cuff setting because the production was so much higher, 'so high you were just moving around real quick all day.'

Mrs. Virginia Taylor, who rode to work in the same automobile that Mrs. Cook rode in, testified that Mrs. Cook said something to her about her feet being swollen, and that Mrs. Cook told her that on one occasion 'she just kinda went to sleep and fell over against her machine,' but she did not know what was wrong.

The superintendent of the plant and the plant nurse testified that they had no record of Mrs. Cook having a fainting spell while at work at any time during the last week she was employed at the garment plant; and the supervisor, or floor lady, who was on duty at that time testified that nothing of that kind occurred. The superintendent of the plant testified that the operation of tacking sleeves, to which Mrs. Cook was assigned on April 30, was a machine operation performed while she was sitting; that the training period on that particular job was 14 weeks; and that Mrs. Cook was expected to attain 100 per cent efficiency by the end of the training period. He stated that the plant considered the operation which Mrs. Cook was engaged in as one of the easy operations.

Five doctors testified during the hearing before the attorney-referee.

Dr. William H. Rosenblatt, who had examined the x-ray pictures of Mrs. Cook's chest, testified that, in his opinion, the cause of death was 'specifically chronic pulmonary heart disease, secondary to long standing chest deformity and/or lung disease, and I'd be of the opinion that her terminal episode' was that described in the death certificate, namely, 'congestive heart failure and pulmonary edema.' As to the relation between the work activities and her death, the doctor said: 'I would say that her work activities probably aggravated her condition, and I will elaborate to this extent: Most anything this lady would have done would have aggravated her underlying severe cardiac disease. The type of heart disease that she manifested is known to be a relentlessly progressive disease of the heart muscle, which notoriously responds very poorly, if at all, to the customary, usual measures directed at treatment. Pulmonary heart disease is a heart ailment which is secondary to some type of derangement in the pulmonary circuit, pulmonary vascular circuit, either from fibrosis in the lungs, blockage of pulmonary arteries, or from marked chest deformity which interferes with the normal cardio-vascular mechanics, or what we call hemodynamis. There results a marked increase in the work load placed on the right side of the heart, and in order to overcome whatever pathology is responsible for the condition, over a period of years the right side of the heart, specifically the right ventricle, enlarges and finally fails.'

Dr. Thaddeus LaBeckie, who has called to testify as an expert witness on behalf of the claimants, in answer to hypothetical questions, stated that, in his opinion, emotional strain was a factor which contributed to the death of Mrs. Cook.

Dr. R. E. Shands, who was called to testify as a witness on behalf of the employer and the insurance carrier, stated that he had treated Mrs. Cook off and on for a period of several years. He stated that he had treated her on August 14, 1956, approximately eight...