Matthiessen & Hegeler Zinc Co. v. Indus. Bd.

• Decision Date: 02 October 1918
• Docket Number: No. 11924.,11924.
• Citation: 284 Ill. 378,120 N.E. 249
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court
• Parties: MATTHIESSEN & HEGELER ZINC CO. v. INDUSTRIAL BOARD et al.

284 Ill. 378

120 N.E. 249

MATTHIESSEN & HEGELER ZINC CO.

v.INDUSTRIAL BOARD et al.

No. 11924.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 20, 1918.

Rehearing Denied Oct. 2, 1918.

Error to Circuit Court, La Salle County; S. C. Stough, Judge.

Proceedings by the administrator of Joseph Adrian for compensation for his death against the Matthiessen & Hegeler Zinc Company. The Industrial Board confirmed an award of the arbitrator, which action was affirmed by the circuit court upon certiorari, and the company brings error. Affirmed.

Clarence Griggs, of Ottawa, and Wilkerson, Cassels & Potter, of Chicago (Ralph F. Potter, of Chicago, of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

Browne & Wiley, of Ottawa, for defendants in error.

CARTWRIGHT, J.

The administrator of Joseph Adrian claimed compensation for his death on October 14, 1914, alleged to have resulted from an accidental injury in the course of his employment by the plaintiff in error in its business of smelting zinc ores at Peru. The arbitrator awarded compensation, and on a review by the Industrial Board the award was confirmed. The record was certified to the circuit court of La Salle county in return to a writ of certiorari and the award was again confirmed. The court certified that the case was one proper to be reviewed by this court.

The decision will depend upon the conclusion to be drawn from the following undisputed facts: Joseph Adrian prior to October 6, 1914, had worked continuously for the plaintiff in error in its plant for 38 years and during the last 15 years had been a fireman at the furnaces in the smelter. Each day he was required twice during his 8-hour period to work for about 45 minutes in drawing the scum and dross, or oxide as it is called, from the surface of the molten zinc or spelter. For this purpose he used an iron rod about 15 feet long with a scraper on the end. He threw sal ammoniac on top of the molten spelter, and, inserting the rod in the furnace, drew the scraper over the top of the molten metal, drawing from the surface the scum or dross, which fell on a platform in front of the furnace, giving off hot, burning gases, vapors, and fumes until it cooled. There was a hood over the furnace, but it did not extend over the place where the oxide fell and did not take away the gases generated by it. In that work he was part of the time within 4 or 5 feet of the furnace door, and when the oxide was cold he shoveled it up and it was taken away. The ore smelted by plaintiff in error contained 99 per cent. of zinc, a fraction less than two-tenths of one per cent. of lead, and a trace of arsenic. The plaintiff in error had operated the plant for nearly 50 years, and no case of lead, zinc, or arsenical poisoning had ever appeared there. Adrian during all his years of service had been in good health with the exception of two accidents. About 8 years before his death he was scalded by flying molten metal, but the burns soon healed over and left only scars, and about a year before his death he fell and cut the bridge of his nose but worked all the time, and it also healed leaving a scar. He had never been affected with any appearance of disease or disability by lead, zinc, or arsenical poisoning, and in the year before his fatal illness he never missed a day except when there was no work. Two other men who worked with Adrian doing precisely the same work for more than 10 years had never been injuriously affected in any way by their work. October 6, 1914, came on Tuesday, and Adrian was in his usual health up to the morning of that day. The plant was operated generally only 5 days in the week, and he worked on the previous Saturday until 10 o'clock at night but did not work on Sunday or Monday. On Tuesday morning he began work at 6 o'clock, and on leaving home for the plant said that he did not feel like going to work. He worked until 2 o'clock in the afternoon, when he went home sick and had dysentery. His daughter had been slightly affected in the same way during the day and she at first attributed his sickness to coffee which he had drunk, which was discolored when milk was poured in it; but the attending physician found that there was nothing the matter with the coffee, and other members of the family who had drunk the coffee were not affected. About 8 o'clock in the evening Adrian was seized with cramps through his arms and legs, chest, stomach, and bowels, and from that time he grew steadily worse. His discharges were black and loose. His teeth became black and loose, there was a dark line around his gums, his toe nails and finger nails became black, his eyes had a glassy, staring look, his wrists dropped, and his mind wandered. He was treated at home until October 12th when he was taken to a hospital, where he died on October 14th.

The petition filed with the Industrial Board based the claim for compensation upon the ground that Adrian absorbed such a quantity of lead that he was poisoned and his death ensued. Two doctors gave opinions as to the cause of death. One of them testified that the symptoms indicated lead and arsenical poisoning; that lead poisoning was commonly the result of a long course of absorption, and his conclusion was that the death was from arsenical poisoning alone. The other doctor gave an opinion that the death was due to arsenical poisoning, and said that usually such poisoning was not acute but that arsenic is a cumulative poison, which accumulates in the system until it gets to a point where the poison springs into life and there is an explosion which is of an acute nature. He thought that probably Adrian's system became surcharged with arsenic which finally...