Meade Fiber Corp. v. Starnes

• Decision Date: 25 January 1923
• Citation: 247 S.W. 989,147 Tenn. 362
• Parties: MEADE FIBER CORPORATION v. STARNES.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

247 S.W. 989

147 Tenn. 362

MEADE FIBER CORPORATION v. STARNES.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

January 25, 1923

Error to Law Court of Kingsport; D. A. Vines, Judge.

Action by E. M. Starnes against the Meade Fiber Corporation. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant brings error. Action dismissed.

L. D SMITH, Special Judge.

This is an action by an employee against his employer to recover compensation under the workmen's compensation statute (chapter 123, Acts 1919), in which there was a judgment for the plaintiff in the court below. The employee claims to be suffering from a disease naturally resulting from an injury accidentally sustained by him in the course of his employment. A determinative question is whether, from the facts, under the most favorable view of the evidence to the employee, it can be said as a matter of law that there was an injury accidentally received.

The statute makes provisions for compensation to employees for personal injuries arising out of and in the course of employment. Section 3. The act defines injury and personal injury to--

"mean only injury by accident arising out of and in the course of employment, and shall not include a disease in any form except as it shall naturally result from the injury." Section 2, subd. (d).

It necessarily results therefrom that, to entitle the employee to recover in this case, the disease of which he complains and for which he seeks compensation must have naturally resulted from an injury by accident.

The facts which the evidence most favorable to the employee tends to establish are these:

In connection with the business being conducted by the employer and in which the employee was engaged, was used a chemical called soda ash. This is in a pulverized form, and is contained in sacks and stored in the basement of the building. It was a part of the employee's work to assist in moving these sacks from the basement to an upper floor in the building. Another chemical used in connection with the business is called bleach, which is contained in sealed drums, and in the course of his work the employee helped to transfer these drums from the car in which they were shipped to the bleaching room. He also assisted in cleaning up the bleaching room. The work of removing these sacks of soda ash and cleaning up the room necessarily caused dust from this soda ash to fly in the air and to be inhaled by the employees doing the work. The effect of inhaling this dust was to irritate the throat and lungs, causing those breathing it to sneeze and cough. This irritation is generally temporary, and rarely produces any harmful effect. Some persons, however, are more susceptible, and we may fairly conclude from the evidence that the employee here developed a disease therefrom which if it can be said to constitute an accidental injury, would entitle him to compensation. The question, therefore, is whether the breathing of dust necessarily caused by the very work in which the employee is engaged constitutes an accidental injury.

It can hardly be said that the decisions on this point are uniform, nor that they can be entirely reconciled, in view of the particular language used in the various Compensation Acts which have been under construction.

It is clear under our statute that it is not every injury which will entitle an employee to compensation, for the reason that the Legislature was particular to limit compensation to those injuries which were accidentally sustained. In the very opening section of the act the phrases "injury" and "personal injury" are defined, and therein it is said these shall mean only injury by accident, and do not include diseases in any form, except such as naturally result from an accidental injury, and no injury, except one sustained by accident, carries with it compensation. We cannot, therefore, overlook the intention of the Legislature to qualify the character of the injury by the term "accident" or "accidental." It is...