Insurance Dept. of Miss. v. Dinsmore

• Decision Date: 03 July 1958
• Docket Number: No. 40790,40790
• Citation: Insurance Dept. of Miss. v. Dinsmore, 233 Miss. 569, 104 So.2d 296 (Miss. 1958)
• Parties: INSURANCE DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI et al. v. R. R. DINSMORE, Adm'r, Estate of Mrs. Alice Dinsmore, Deceased.
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court

Page 296

104 So.2d 296

233 Miss. 569

INSURANCE DEPARTMENT OF MISSISSIPPI et al. v. R. R. DINSMORE, Adm'r, Estate of Mrs. Alice Dinsmore, Deceased.

No. 40790.

Supreme Court of Mississippi.

July 3, 1958.

Butler, Snow, O'Mara, Stevens & Cannada, Dan McCullen, Jackson, for appellants.

Lipscomb, Ray & Barksdale, Jackson, for appellee.

ETHRIDGE, Justice.

Appellants assert that the evidence does not support the finding of the Workmen's Compensation Commission that the work activities of Mrs. Dinsmore contributed to the cerebral thrombosis which she suffered on May 4, 1955. We have reviewed again the medical and non-medical evidence on this issue, and find appellants' position to be without merit.

As Deputy Insurance Commissioner, Mrs. Dinsmore had a strenuous administrative job manifestly involving considerable physical exertion, which phrase includes both bodily effort and mental activity. Her duties were supervisory, clerical and stenographic. She was second in authority to the Insurance Commissioner, and many of the functions of that office devolved on her, including licensing of insurance agents, examinations of annual statements submitted by insurance companies, the approval of them, examination of foreign insurance companies applying for admission to do business in the state, inventories of supplies and equipment, purchasing, etc. The Commission further was warranted in finding that, although she had been relieved of some duties, the increased volume of work in the office resulted in Mrs. Dinsmore having still an equal or heavier burden. She had just finished the three busiest months of the year, when she had the 'stroke'. After one reduces the plethora of medical testimony to the precise issue, three of the five doctors who testified gave as their opinions that her employment or work contributed to and aggravated her hypertensive, cardiovascular disease, which was one of the factors in the production of the cerbral thrombosis, and that the hemiplegia was attributable to both the thrombosis and the hypertensive cardiovascular disease.

The courts do not pass upon the weight of the medical evidence where the same is conflicting and reasonable. That is the duty of the trier of fact. The work must be only a contributing and not the sole cause of the injury, and the injury is compensable if the employment aggravated, accelerated or combined with the disease or infirmity to produce the disability or death for which compensation is sought. W. G. Avery Body Co. v. Hall, 1955, 224 Miss. 51, 79 So.2d 453, 80 So.2d 53. The medical evidence amply supported the Commission's finding of a contributing connection in fact between the claimant's strenuous work activities and the cerebral thrombosis.

There are a multitude of cases awarding compensation where the work contributes to or aggravates a cerebral hemorrhage. 4 Schneider, Workmen's Compensation Law (1945) Secs. 1328, 1332, 1302; 58 Am.Jur., Workmen's Compensation, Sec. 255. The experience of other courts in this field demonstrates that any subtle medico-legal distinction between a cerebral hemorrhage and thrombosis would be impractical and unrealistic. 1 Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law (1952) Secs. 38.70, 38.72, 38.73. The issue as a matter of medical causation is the ability of the particular work activities or strains to affect the particular diseased vascular system. The direct medical question is whether given this particular employee's pathology and the exertions of the job, the exertions in fact contributed to the collapse. The medical evidence as a fact must show a causal connection between the obligations of the employment and the final injury. The claimant's injury or death must be caused in some reasonable substantial degree by the employment. 1...