Mills v. Ward

• Decision Date: 12 December 1934
• Docket Number: No. 15298.,15298.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court
• Parties: SEYMOUR WOOLEN MILLS v. WARD et al.

100 Ind.App. 108

192 N.E. 892

SEYMOUR WOOLEN MILLS

v.WARD et al.

No. 15298.

Appellate Court of Indiana, in Banc.

Dec. 12, 1934.

Appeal from Industrial Board.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Pearl M. Ward and Carolyn Jo Ward, widow and daughter, respectively, of Charles L. Ward, deceased, claimants, for the death of decedent, opposed by the Seymour Woolen Mills, employer. From an award by the full Industrial Board granting claimants compensation, the employer appeals.

Affirmed.James L. Murray and Frank H. Fairchild, both of Indianapolis, for appellant.

James V. Donadio, of Indianapolis, Edward P. Elsner, of Seymour, and Slaymaker, Merrell & Locke, of Indianapolis, for appellees.

PER CURIAM.

This action was brought before the Industrial Board by appellees, Pearl M. Ward and Carolyn Jo Ward, widow and daughter, respectively, of Charles L. Ward, asking compensation for his death, which was alleged to have been due to an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment at appellant's place of business.

It appears that decedent had been employed as fireman for appellant approximately eight years and at the time of his death was earning $18.40 per week. Just prior to the fall, which resulted in his death, he was in good health and talked and joked with those present, at the entrance of the furnace room. That he walked over to the fire box, picked up a shovel, opened the door of the furnace with the shovel, and fell to the cement floor, on which there was some coal. He made no attempt to break his fall or to protect himself when he fell. His head struck the floor causing a skull fracture. Death resulted several hours later. The medical testimony was that decedent's death was due to the hemorrhage caused by the fractured skull. The doctors further testified that from an autopsy they noted no gross pathology in the decedent's heart, kidneys, liver, or spleen that could have caused his death.

The single member of the Industrial Board found that decedent's death arose out of and in the course of his employment and awarded compensation to appellees at the rate of $10.12 per week for a period of three hundred weeks and upon review the full board made a like award. On appeal the statutory assignment of error was made.

[1][2][3] This court will not weigh the evidence in an appeal from the full Industrial Board and the facts, as found by such board, are binding upon this court, and it is only where there is...