Liberty Mut. Ins. Co. v. Meeks, 32975

• Decision Date: 07 June 1950
• Docket Number: No. 32975,No. 2,32975,2
• Parties: LIBERTY MUT. INS. CO. v. MEEKS
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

Page 258

60 S.E.2d 258

81 Ga.App. 800

LIBERTY MUT. INS. CO. v. MEEKS.

No. 32975.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, Division No. 2.

June 7, 1950.

Rehearing Denied June 28, 1950.

Syllabus by the Court.

1. If, in a workmen's compensation case, the immediate precipitating cause of the injury to the employee is over exertion within the necessary and regular course of his employment, the case is compensable, although the attack from which the employee died may not actually have incapacitated him until after his day's employment was ended.

2. Although a hypothetical question propounded to an expert medical witness, while substantially correct, may have been subject to a certain looseness of statement, nevertheless, where, in a protracted cross-examination, the witness clearly stated his opinion based upon the testimony as shown by the record, the Director, as a Court judging both the law and the facts, is presumed to have based his decision upon that part of the testimony which was competent rather than that part of the testimony which was incompetent.

The defendant-in-error, Minnie Meeks, herein referred to as the claimant, filed a claim with the State Board of Workmen's Compensation for compensation for the death of her husband, Daniel L. Meeks, here styled the employee, against his employer, Pre-Cast Concrete Company and its insurance carrier, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company. An award was entered by the single Director in favor of the claimant and this award was affirmed on appeal by the full Board and by the Superior Court of Fulton County respectively.

The evidence revealed that the employee was a man of from 50 to 55 years of age; that he was employed as a laborer by the concrete company, and that his work generally was of a heavy nature, but not generally as heavy or as hurried as that performed by him during the three days preceding his death, November 16, 17 and 18, 1948; that during this time he was employed at a place other than the place of business of the company and was engaged in carrying concrete roof slabs, and unloading and placing the same. He worked with a witness, E. C. Garrison, the men being engaged in lifting the slabs, of a weight between 60 and 75 pounds each, from an elevator, and carrying them across the roof to the point where they were to be used by the workmen. The testimony of Garrison was substantially that each block had to be carried at least 10 yards, except for those which were loaded into a 'buggy'; that the work was necessarily hurried because others were waiting for the elevator; that it was steady throughout the day, with no rest period except for lunch; that the employee lagged in carrying his half of the load as the day (November 18) wore on; that around two o'clock he stated to the witness that the work was too heavy for him and he could not do it; that later in the afternoon the witness called another workman to help, saying that 'Mr. Meeks is just about to go down', but that the workman was not available and the employee continued as best he could until quitting time. The employee's son testified that when he and his father went to the company dressing room to change clothes preparatory to going home he complained of a pain in his breast; that he continued to complain on the way home; that his face had no color and that he appeared to be suffering; that he stated at that time that the work had got so hard for him it looked like he was going to have to quit. The company foreman drove the two men from the company office to a point about half way to their home. They then got on a bus which took them in front of the house in which the employee lived. The claimant testified that her husband was very sick when he came into the house; that his face was ashen; that he complained a great deal and apparently had chest pains; that he immediately lay down, later ate a very light supper, continued to grow worse, was taken to the hospital late that night and died the following afternoon. Dr. Minor Blackford, qualified as an expert witness for the claimant, testified that he saw the claimant in Crawford Long Hospital during the morning of November 19, that he was suffering from coronary thrombosis; that he was in a dying condition at that time; that he was kept alive by means of an oxygen tent and stimulants until late in the afternoon; that the cause of death was a coronary occlusion brought about by diseased arteries and precipitated by the heavy work which he had been doing. There was also medical testimony on behalf of the defendant employer to the effect that the work was not a contributing proximate cause of the death.

Error is here assigned on the judgment of the Superior Court affirming the award.

Harry L. Greene, Atlanta, Neely, Marshall & Greene, Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Emory L. Rowland, Wrightsville, Emmett O. Dobbs, Jr., Atlanta, for defendant in error.

TOWNSEND, Judge (After stating the foregoing facts).

1. The Director stated as a finding of fact that the cause of death was coronary thrombosis, generalized arteriosclerosis being a contributing cause; that the claimant was doing hard laborious work on November 18 and that there is medical testimony to support the finding that the strain placed on the employee as a result of this heavy work contributed to his death. There is evidence in the record to support this finding. As stated in Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Adams, 70 Ga.App. 297, 28 S.E.2d 79, 80: 'If the employment of the employee contributes to the injury it is an accident under our compensation law and is compensable, it matters not what combined with the employment to produce it.' In Maddox v. Buice Transfer and Storage Co., 81 Ga.App. 503, 59 S.E.2d 329, 330, the court held: 'If the immediate precipitating cause of the employee's death...