Meter v. E. R. Morehouse, Inc.
| Decision Date | 15 July 1935 |
| Docket Number | No. 260.,260. |
| Parties | VAN METER v. E. R. MOREHOUSE, Inc. |
| Court | New Jersey Supreme Court |
Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Eli R. Van Meter, employee, for injuries, opposed by E. R. Morehouse, Inc., employer. Judgment of the bureau awarding compensation to the employee was reversed by judgment of the Court of Common Pleas, and the employee brings certiorari.
Judgment of Court of Common Pleas reversed, and that of bureau affirmed.
Argued May term, 1935, before PARKER, CASE, and BODINE, JJ.
Varbalow & Liberman, of Camden, for prosecutor.
Starr, Summerill & Lloyd, of Camden, for respondent.
Petitioner, a farm laborer, while clearing a field by pulling out great weeds and bushes, suffered an injury to his back. He had been assigned to this work by his employer. Congenitally, his back was not strong and the injury caused by prolonged exertion seems to have started up an old arthritic condition. The bureau determined that there had been an accident arising out of and in the course of the employment for which compensation should be paid. The court of common pleas reversed this finding.
There may be a recovery for an injury caused by an accident, although there was a diseased bodily condition prior to the injury, which it may be inferred would have remained more or less dormant until weakened by the accident. Lundy v. George Brown & Co., 93 N. J. Law, 107, 106 A. 362, affirmed 93 N. J. Law, 469, 108 A. 252; Gcizel v. Regina Co., 96 N. J. Law, 31, 114 A. 328, affirmed Geisel v. Regina Co., 97 N. J. Law, 331, 116 A. 924; New York Live Poultry Trucking Co. v. Schwartz, 135 A. 775, 5 N. J. Misc. 178, affirmed 104 N. J. Law, 180, 139 A. 923; Tutino v. Ford Motor Co., 111 N. J. Law, 435, 168 A. 749; Bernstein Furniture Co. v. Kelly, 114 N. J. Law, 500, 177 A. 554.
The question in the case before us is: Was the employment one of the contributing causes without which the accident which actually happened would not have happened; and if the accident is one of the contributing causes without which the injury which actually followed would not have followed? Newcomb v. Albertson, 85 N. J. Law, 435, 89 A. 928; Selak v. Murray Rubber Co., 108 N. J. Law, 548, 159 A. 93.
In the present case, the employment in pulling weeds was one of the contributing causes without which the accident which actually happened would not have happened. Obviously, the sprain to the back from the excessive tugging from the protracted work of the morning was one of the contributing causes without which the old arthritic condition would not have occurred. The...
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