Lewis v. Industrial Commission

• Decision Date: 30 November 1967
• Docket Number: No. 40572,40572
• Citation: 231 N.E.2d 593,38 Ill.2d 461
• Parties: Viola LEWIS, Widow of Frank A. Lewis, Appellant, v. The INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. (Alton Box Board Company, Appellee.)
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

Page 593

231 N.E.2d 593

38 Ill.2d 461

Viola LEWIS, Widow of Frank A. Lewis, Appellant, v.The INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al. (Alton Box Board Company, Appellee.)

No. 40572.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 30, 1967.

Armbruster & Diaz, Alton (Ross Armbruster, Alton, of counsel), for appellant.

Thomas Q. Keefe, East St. Louis, for appellee.

WARD, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment of the circuit court of Madison County upholding the Industrial Commission's denial of the petitioner's claim for compensation under the Workmen's Occupational Diseases Act.The petitioner, Viola Lewis, urges that compensation should have been awarded, maintaining that the evidence she presented established a direct causal connection between the conditions of her deceased husband's employment and his contraction of the disabling disease of emphysema from which he allegedly died.

The petitioner's husband, Frank Lewis, was employed by the Alton Box Board Company for 21 years.During this time his duties changed periodically.He worked first as a paper sorter.Following that, he worked for a number of years in the beater room department, initially trucking paper, and in later years opening bales and feeding wastepaper into the various beaters.The decedent in the performance of these duties was exposed to dust which came from wastepaper and various types of straw.The last ten years of his employment were spent as a refinery operator which involved a process of washing straw and wood.This assignment was performed in a dust-free area.However, Lewis often was required to work under hoods used to cover vats.In so working, he would inhale vapors of steam and various chemicals, including citrate bicarbon and caustic soda.

Lewis was last employed by the Alton Box Board Company in January or February, 1962.In December, 1962, he was hospitalized in St. Louis, Missouri, for 11 days because of chronic obstructive emphysema and other medical complaints.He died on July 2, 1964, at age 65, apparently from coronary thrombosis.It does not appear that he was ever employed after leaving the Alton Company.

The record shows that Lewis had been experiencing difficulties in breathing at least as early as 1959.Additionally, the petitioner, Viola Lewis, testified that her husband coughed frequently during his last years, that he had been an out-patient at the hospital clinic from the time of his hospitalization in December, 1962, until his death, and that in his last year he could walk only a short distance before becoming out of breath.

None of the physicians who had examined and treated the petitioner's husband during and subsequent to his hospitalization in December, 1962, could be located, so that they could testify, the petitioner stated.Dr Francis Lamb and W. W. Billings, who testified for the petitioner, had never examined the petitioner's husband.Dr. Lamb, a chest surgeon, testified on direct examination, in response to a hypothetical question, that it is not yet known whether continued inhalation of atmospheric impurities, such as were here, cause emphysema, and that he was not certain whether such inhalation would aggravate a pre-existing emphysematous condition.On cross-examination, Dr. Lamb testified that emphysema may arise from a number of causes, known and unknown, and it is found in members of the general public, regardless of environment or employment.Dr. Billings had considerable experience with respiratory diseases prior to his retirement from practice in December, 1961.He testified that emphysema often causes coronary thrombosis, resulting in death.Dr. Billings further testified, in response to a hypothetical question posed by petitioner's attorney, that continued inhalation of foreign bodies, such as were here, could contribute to and cause aggravation of an emphysematous lung.He also testified that emphysema is not found in females to the extent found in males employed in industries where they are exposed to dust and other atmospheric pollutants.Under cross-examination, Dr. Billings stated that he did not know of the concentration of the irritants to which Lewis had been exposed.Too, he testified that the irritants involved might affect some, but not all persons.

Section I(d) of the Workmen's Occupational Diseases Act provides, insofar as is pertinent here, that 'the term 'Occupational Disease' means a disease arising out of and in the course of the employment.Ordinary diseases of life to which the general public is exposed outside of the employment shall not be compensable, except where the said diseases follow as an incident of an occupational disease as defined in this Section.

'A disease shall be deemed to arise out of the employment only if there is apparent to the...