Maryland Casualty Co. v. Rogers
Decision Date | 23 September 1935 |
Docket Number | No. 4472.,4472. |
Parties | MARYLAND CASUALTY CO. v. ROGERS et al. |
Court | Texas Court of Appeals |
Appeal from District Court, Cottle County; Isaac Newton, Judge.
Suit under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Mrs. Lula Rogers and others to set aside an award of the Industrial Accident Board in favor of the Maryland Casualty Company. Judgment for plaintiffs, and the Maryland Casualty Company appeals.
Affirmed.
Simpson, Dorenfield, Foster & Fullingim, of Amarillo, for appellant.
Caldwell, Gillen, Francis & Gallagher, of Dallas, for appellees.
Appellees recovered judgment against appellant under the Texas Workmen's Compensation Law (Vernon's Ann. Civ. St. art. 8306 et seq.). Their pleadings are not here questioned, nor is their evidence, except in the respects hereafter discussed. The general nature of this case will sufficiently appear in the copied issues submitted by the court and answers of the jury to these, together with such of the evidence set out as is necessary to properly appraise and pass on the legal points involved on this appeal.
Of the issues submitted to the jury, only the following, with the respective answers thereto, are necessary to here reproduce:
The substance and effect of appellant's various propositions are: (1) That there is no evidence that deceased received an "injury," under the said definition of such term; (2) that, if injured, such injury was not shown to be accidental; and (3) that no causal connection was shown to exist between such injury, if any, and his subsequent death.
We are indebted to both parties for able briefs. These enable us to shorten this opinion to a discussion and recitation of such evidence as in our opinion controls the disposition of the questions raised by appellant, in the light of the definitions of "injury" and "accidental injury," supra, apparently acquiesced in by both parties as correct.
The following is a brief résumé of the evidence: The deceased, James W. Rogers, was an employee of a feed store located in Paducah, Cottle county, Tex. His duties consisted of waiting on customers, making deliveries, and occasionally operating a feed grinder, consisting of a hammer type mill located in the back end of such feed store; that such store building was of stone, about 15 feet wide, ventilated by two windows and a door; that on Friday, about January 19, 1934, in the course of his said employment, he assisted in grinding a large load of grain fodder known as higera; that such fodder had just been brought in by two farmers and was full of dirt, due to a sandstorm that had raged the day previous; this was described by one of the farmers as "the dirtiest he had ever seen"; that it took about two and one-half hours to grind it; that deceased during all that time worked at the sacker, shown to be the dustiest position of all; that the fodder was ground about as fine as corn meal; that during the grinding there was emitted a fog of dust and foreign particles, so much so that a man was not visible in the room more than five or six feet away; that witnesses had to leave frequently to get their breaths; that deceased was covered with dirt and foreign matter, was coughing violently, and spitting up a black substance; that he continued this spitting up mud or black substance after he got home that night; that his eyes were red and swollen, he coughed violently and complained of his chest hurting; slept little, beating his chest through the night; spit up "quite a bit of blood" from the time he got home Friday; had temperature Monday and a hard chill that night; grew worse, vomited up blood about Thursday, and died of pneumonia Friday night; that deceased was healthy previous to this; had not had any hurtful effect from similar work before; that there was a mild epidemic of pneumonia over the country at the time. Three doctors tetsified for appellees. We reproduce a portion of such testimony:
A physician testified for appellant that when he examined deceased Tuesday morning he found only a congested condition of the lungs, and diagnosed his case as such, and the effect of other parts of his testimony was in substance that deceased died from pneumonia, a germ disease purely.
Plainly, a damage to the physical structure of the body need not necessarily be externally visible to come within the meaning of "injury," as that term is used in article 8309 of the Workmen's Compensation Law. (Vernon's Ann. Civ. St.) Naturally, symptoms are depended upon in large measure in cases of this character to prove injury to a hidden organ. Here we have violent coughing,...
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