Jones v. Industrial Commission, 5317

• Decision Date: 25 April 1950
• Docket Number: No. 5317,5317
• Parties: JONES v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Arizona Supreme Court

Page 589

217 P.2d 589

70 Ariz. 145

JONES v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 5317.

Supreme Court of Arizona.

April 25, 1950.

William D. Lyerle, of Tucson, attorney for petitioner.

Robert E. Yount, Industrial Commission, Phoenix, H. S. McCluskey and Donald J. Morgan, Phoenix, of counsel, for respondent.

PHELPS, Justice.

This is a proceeding in certiorari in which petitioner seeks a reversal of the findings an award of the Industrial Commission denying him compensation for injuries suffered which he claims resulted from an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment.

The facts are that on June 15, 1949 and for about nine weeks previous thereto petitioner was employed as a farm laborerby Helena S. Rascob who was engaged in farming operations in Pima County. During the period of petitioner's employment he did some carpenter work and assisted in baling hay a couple of days, during which time he sustained certain bruises to the anterior portion of his legs above the knees. This occurred in May, 1949. But petitioner was primarily engaged during his employment in irrigating summer crops being grown on said farm lands.

The evidence disclosed that while irrigating, his feet were wet most of the time. The evidence further disclosed that petitioner was and had been for some time afflicted with arterio sclerosis which is an abnormal thickening and hardening of the walls of the arteries damaging the lining of these vessels.

Petitioner's vascular disorder had not reached an advanced stage and the nature of the affliction was unknown to him until informed by doctors who were in attendance upon him after the occurrence on June 15th of a blood clot in an artery on the back of the right leg just below the knee. The doctors were unable to dissolve the blood clot and a gangrenous condition developed necessitating the amputation of the right leg between the knee and the hip. Petitioner's application for compensation was denied by the commission upon the ground that his injury was not the result of an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment.

To entitle an injured employee to compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Act, A.C.A. 1939, § 56-901 et seq., three things must concur: (1) the injury must be the result of an accident (2) it must have arisen out of his employment and (3) it must have arisen in the course of his employment. We have so often made this pronouncement that citation of authorities to support it is unnecessary. Equally well established is the rule that if an injured person is suffering from a disease at the time the accident occurs and the disease is aggravated thereby the injury is compensable.

With these principles in mind let us see whether petitioner's claim can be sustained. There can certainly be no doubt but that petitioner suffered a blood clot in an artery back of the knee of his right leg while in the course of his employment. The spasm resulting from the blood clot occurred within ten to thirty minutes after he quit work on June 15th and according to medical testimony formed as the result of lowered temperatures of the lower extremities of the body due the necessity of wading in the water. There is further no doubt that the blood clot from which petitioner...