Metropolitan Cas. Ins. Co. v. Crenshaw

• Decision Date: 15 December 1931
• Docket Number: 21698.
• Parties: METROPOLITAN CASUALTY INS. CO. et al. v. CRENSHAW.
• Court: Georgia Court of Appeals

161 S.E. 649

44 Ga.App. 354

METROPOLITAN CASUALTY INS. CO. et al. v. CRENSHAW.

No. 21698.

Court of Appeals of Georgia, First Division

December 15, 1931

Syllabus OPINION.

Death from disease contracted by handling dead rabbits during employment, while employee had abrasions on hands from handling heavy boxes, held compensable.

Error from Superior Court, Fulton County; John D. Humphries, Judge.

Proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Mrs. F. M. Crenshaw for the death of her husband, opposed by the Metropolitan Casualty Insurance Company and another. An award of the Industrial Commission in claimant's favor was affirmed by the superior court, and insurer and employer bring error.

Affirmed.

McDaniel, Neely & Marshall and Harry L. Greene, all of Atlanta, for plaintiff in error.

Paul L. Lindsay, of Atlanta, for defendant in error.

BROYLES, C.J.

This was a claim under the Workmen's Compensation Act (Acts 1920, p. 167, as amended) by a widow, for compensation for the death of her husband. Upon the hearing before a single commissioner the evidence adduced, together with the legal inferences and deductions arising therefrom, irrespective of the alleged hearsay evidence admitted over the objections of the defendants (the testimony of a witness that the deceased, a few days before his death, stated that the abrasions on his hand were caused by handling boxes or barrels where he worked), authorized the following findings of fact: (1) That the death of the deceased was due to a disease called "tularemia," which he contracted by handling and dressing dead rabbits in the course of his employment, while he had abrasions on his hands, the germs of the disease entering his blood stream through the abrasions; (2) that the abrasions on his hands were caused by handling heavy boxes or barrels in the course of his employment, and that the receiving of such abrasions was an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment; (3) that the disease (tularemia) resulted naturally and unavoidably from the above-stated accident.

It follows from the foregoing rulings that the award of the industrial commission in favor of the claimant was authorized, and that it was properly affirmed by the judge of the superior court.

Judgment affirmed.

LUKE, J., concurs.

BLOODWORTH, J., absent on account of illness.