Johnson v. Capitol Hotel
| Citation | 189 Va. 585 |
| Decision Date | 20 June 1949 |
| Docket Number | Record No. 3528. |
| Court | Virginia Supreme Court |
| Parties | RUBY W. JOHNSON, ET AL. v. CAPITOL HOTEL, INC., EMPLOYER, AND THE TRAVELERS INSURANCE COMPANY, INSURER. |
3. Plaintiff's decedent moved two tons of sand in the course of his employment, using a six-pound shovel which would hold about twenty-five pounds of wet sand, in not over an hour and a half. A witness testified that he did not work too fast, and when he finished he made no complaint of being in distress. Before going to work he had said he never felt better in his life, and four physical examinations of him in the previous three years had revealed nothing abnormal. An hour after moving the sand he became sick and two hours later died from a coronary occlusion. Medical testimony as to whether the work had anything to do with the onset of the coronary occlusion was conflicting and represented opposing views. The Industrial Commission of Virginia found no causal relation between the disease and decedent's work and held that it could not be said death was caused by an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employment. The Commission's decision, supported by competent, credible evidence, was conclusive. To reverse its decision would require the Supreme Court of Appeals to say as matter of law that the Commission should have believed one doctor instead of others, and a question so debated by medical experts should not be settled by judicial fiat.
4. In workmen's compensation cases the plaintiff must prove his case. As an essential part of it he must prove causal connection between the employment and the injury and his evidence must go beyond mere conjecture.
Appeal from an award of the Industrial Commission of Virginia.
The opinion states the case.
Emanuel Emroch and Marion W. Jones, for the appellants.
M. Wallace Moncure, Jr., for the appellees.
The Industrial Commission refused compensation to the appellants on the ground that there was no causal connection between the death of their decedent, George W. Johnson, and the work he was doing for his employer. This appeal brings that ruling up for review.
Johnson was thirty-five years old and at the time of his death had been employed by Capitol Hotel, Inc., for about a year as house maintenance man to do general work in and about the hotel. Prior to his death he had apparently been in good health. He had been examined by physicians on four occasions between March, 1945, and November, 1947, and nothing abnormal was discovered. On March 1, 1948, the day of his death, he arrived at the hotel for work at 7:30 a.m. His wife testified that when he left home he told her he had never felt better in his life. Nothing is shown as to his activities between 7:30 a.m. and some time after eight o'clock. Around the latter hour a load of sand, four tons, was dumped at the rear of the hotel in such way as to block the driveway. Johnson set about to clear it from the driveway. He used a six-pound shovel, which would hold about 25 pounds of wet sand. His method of work is not shown beyond the fact that one witness who was there three or four minutes stated he was standing on the south side of the pile, cutting it westwardly, and was working "not too fast, just medium."
The only definite evidence about the time Johnson was engaged in this work is that he had finished at 9:30 a.m. after moving about one-half of the sand. He then made no complaint of being in any distress and seemed to be in good spirits. Perhaps an hour later one of Johnson's helpers, Brown, found him in the boiler room. He said he was sick and sent Brown upstairs for Gresham, president of the hotel company. While Brown was gone another employee, Johnson's father-in-law, came in. He testified that Johnson told him he was shoveling sand and it got him down, "I believe I got a slight heart attack from it."
When Gresham came it was near eleven o'clock. A physician, Dr. Goodman, was called and arrived several minutes later. He found Johnson prostrate, cold and in a clammy sweat, suffering from pain in his chest radiating down into his arms, which twice the usual does of narcotic did not relieve. Johnson died forty to fifty minutes later from what the doctor testified was a coronary occlusion or thrombosis as a natural cause. The coroner of the city of Richmond viewed the body and reported that the cause of death was "acute coronary occlusion."
Evidence on the claim for compensation was heard by Commissioner Nickels, who delivered an opinion on July 16, 1948, holding that the evidence failed to show an accidental death or any causal relation of the death to the alleged accident.
On review by the full Commission, October 14, 1948, in an opinion by Chairman Martin it was stated that in view of our decision in the case of Derby Swift & Co., 188 Va 336, 49 S.E.(2d) 417, decided September 8, 1948, this case would be compensable if there was any causal relation between the acute coronary occlusion which resulted in the death of the deceased and the effort of his work in shoveling the sand, either by...
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