Kirnan v. Dakota Midland Hosp., 13860

• Decision Date: 18 January 1983
• Docket Number: No. 13860,13860
• Citation: 331 N.W.2d 72
• Parties: Adeline KIRNAN, Petitioner and Appellant, v. DAKOTA MIDLAND HOSPITAL, Employer and Appellee, and St. Paul Companies, Insurer and Appellee. . Considered on Briefs
• Court: South Dakota Supreme Court

Page 72

331 N.W.2d 72

Adeline KIRNAN, Petitioner and Appellant, v. DAKOTA MIDLAND HOSPITAL, Employer and Appellee and St. Paul Companies, Insurer and Appellee.

No. 13860.

Supreme Court of South Dakota.

Considered on Briefs Jan. 18, 1983.

Decided March 9, 1983.

Julie M. Johnson of Maloney, Kolker, Fritz, Hogan & Johnson, Aberdeen, for petitioner and appellant.

Harvey C. Jewett of Siegel, Barnett & Schutz, Aberdeen, for appellees.

DUNN, Justice.

This is an appeal from an order affirming the final decision of the Division of Labor and Management (Division) of the South Dakota Department of Labor which denied Adeline Kirnan (appellant) workers' compensation claim. We reverse and remand.

Appellant had been employed by Dakota Midland Hospital in Aberdeen, South Dakota (one of the appellees in this case), for a period of approximately eight years before the date of her injury. Appellant performed general housekeeping duties which included vaccuming, dusting, cleaning and scrubbing patient rooms, nurses' stations and hallways in the hospital. When a patient was dismissed, appellant's duties were expanded and required her to lift mattresses and springs, to wash and fold the mattresses and to replace dirty linen.

On Saturday, May 20, 1978, appellant reported to work at 8 a.m. after having the previous day off. Appellant testified that she did not feel well that morning but had still reported for work as she had on other occasions when she did not feel well. After arriving at work, appellant was assigned to C-Wing and was also assigned as a "floater" to aid the women in the other wings if need be. While she felt some pressure to quickly finish her rooms in order to be available for "floater" duty, she apparently was not working at an abnormal pace on this Saturday morning. Appellant was quite certain that there was one dismissal that morning which required she perform more arduous duties. Between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m., appellant cleaned four rooms, one of which may have involved a dismissal, and then went for coffee. When appellant returned from her fifteen-minute coffee break, she went to her work station, and armed with cleaner and cloth, prepared to clean a sink. Almost immediately, she became extremely ill and was later diagnosed to have suffered a heart attack.

Prior to her heart attack, appellant led a relatively healthy and vigorous life style; the only noted exception was a cataract surgery in 1977. Evidence was introduced, however, which indicated that appellant had a preexisting arteriosclerotic heart disease (a narrowing of the arteries in and around the heart) as well as atrilalfibrillation (an irregular heart beat). Appellant had been taking a daily medication for the latter condition for some time prior to the heart attack.

Following an administrative hearing, the Division issued a decision denying appellant's workers' compensation claim. An appeal was taken to the trial court and a subsequent order was issued by that court affirming the decision of the Division. Appellant now appeals from that order.

We begin by examining the operative statute in this appeal. Prior to 1975, SDCL 62-1-1 defined "injury" as:

[O]nly injury by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment, and shall not include a disease in any form except as it shall result from the injury[.]

(Emphasis supplied.) This statute was amended in 1975 when the legislature deleted the phrase "by accident" from the definition of injury.

The pre-1975 statute has been interpreted on numerous occasions. In cases involving the aggravation of a preexisting disease, this court has adopted the "unusual exertion rule." This position was set forth in Oviatt v. Oviatt Dairy Co., 80 S.D. 83, 85, 119 N.W.2d 649, 650 (1963), in which this court stated:

It is settled law in this state that disease, or the aggravation of an existing disease, is compensable, but that such disease or aggravation must be assignable to a definite time, place and circumstance, and that the disease, or aggravation of such disease, must result from unusual exertion. (citations omitted)

The proposition that the law requires unusual exertion be assignable to a definite time, place and circumstance was most recently reaffirmed in Wold v. Meilman Food Industries, 269 N.W.2d 112 (S.D.1978).

None of these cases, however, have interpreted the statute in light of the 1975 amendment which deleted the phrase "by accident." By deleting this phrase, South Dakota joined the states of California, Iowa, Maine, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island in eliminating the requirement. 1B Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law Sec. 37.10. Deletion of "by accident" has resulted in the rejection of the unusual exertion requirement in these jurisdictions. For example, soon after the deletion of "accident" from their statute, the Minnesota Supreme Court noted that it was no longer necessary to prove unusual exertion. Fleischer v. State of Minnesota, Dept. of Highways, 247 Minn. 396, 77 N.W.2d 288 (1956); Golob v. Buckingham Hotel, 244 Minn. 301, 69 N.W.2d 636 (1955). We agree with the approach taken by Minnesota and other jurisdictions which have deleted "by accident" from their statutes and we too choose to abandon the unusual exertion requirement.

This court's interpretation of SDCL 62-1-1 as amended was anticipated by the Division. The Division properly discarded the unusual exertion rule and proceeded to the relevant test of causation: whether the injury was one arising out of and in the course of the employment. 1B Larson, Workmen's Compensation Law, Sec. 38.30. As noted by the Minnesota Supreme Court in Peterson v. Ruberoid Company, 261 Minn. 497, 499, 113 N.W.2d 85, 86 (1962):

[T]he fact that an employee dies from a heart attack at his usual place of employment and during his usual hours thereof is not sufficient, in itself, to impose coverage under the Workmen's Compensation Act. The claimant has the burden of establishing a causal connection between the employment and the disability. In other words, it must be shown that the heart attack was brought on by strain or overexertion incident to the employment, even though the exertion or strain need not be unusual or other than that occurring in the normal course of the employment.

The Division found in its findings of fact "[t]hat no credible evidence was introduced that petitioner's heart attack was caused or contributed to by petitioner's work at Dakota Midland Hospital on May 20, 1978." In reviewing the actions of an agency, we are to give great weight to the findings made on questions of fact and may reverse only if the findings are clearly erroneous in light of the entire evidence in the record. SDCL 1-26-36; ^* Barkdull v. Homestake Min. Co., 317 N.W.2d 417 (S.D.1982). After examining the entire record, we are convinced that the finding of the Division...