Moore v. Serv. Motor Truck Co.

• Decision Date: 10 January 1924
• Docket Number: No. 11775.,11775.
• Citation: 80 Ind.App. 668,142 N.E. 19
• Parties: MOORE v. SERVICE MOTOR TRUCK CO.
• Court: Indiana Appellate Court

80 Ind.App. 668

142 N.E. 19

MOORE

v.SERVICE MOTOR TRUCK CO.

No. 11775.

Appellate Court of Indiana, Division No. 1.

Jan. 10, 1924.

Appeal from Industrial Board.

Proceeding by Benjamin F. Moore under the Workmen's Compensation Act to obtain compensation for personal injuries, opposed by the Service Motor Truck Company, the employer. Compensation was denied, and applicant appeals. Affirmed.

Herman N. Hipskind, of Wabash, for appellant.

Fesler, Elam & Young and Irving M. Fauvre, all of Indianapolis, for appellee.

BATMAN, J.

[1] This appeal involves the denial of an application by appellant for an award of compensation against appellee, based on a finding, which recites in substance, among other things, that appellant's disability for work was due to a disease, which did not result from an accidental injury. If this finding is sustained by any evidence, the denial of the award must be sustained, under subdivision (d) of section 76 of the Workmen's Compensation Act (Acts 1919 p. 176), otherwise it must be reversed. Appellant contends that the Industrial Board erred in making the finding stated, as the undisputed evidence shows that his disability is not the result of a disease, but of an injury by accident. On the question thus presented we find there is substantial evidence tending strongly to establish the following facts: Appellant was in appellee's employ for three or four years. During this time he had charge of the emery wheels in the grinding department of its truck factory. His duties required him to grind, disc, and buff raw castings, and to polish metal parts on an emery wheel and buffing machine. This work caused the air to become laden with emery and metallic dust, which was breathed by appellant in the course of his work. Some of such dust became mixed with the saliva in his mouth, and passed into his stomach and bowels through the process of swallowing. No large or unusual quantities of such dust ever entered the body of appellant at any one time, but a considerable quantity accumulated in his bronchial tubes and lungs, and especially in his stomach and bowels, through the continued processes of breathing and swallowing during the said three or four years of his employment by appellee as a grinder and polisher of metals. As a result, the parts of his body mentioned above becamegradually affected to such a degree that on March 7, 1923, he became sick and unable to work, and so remained until the date of the hearing. In the course of his medical treatment oil was administered, which caused him to pass from his bowels a substance in the form of irregular shaped balls resembling putty, which were composed of emery and metal dust. The loosening and passing of these balls injured the linings of the bowels, so that portions thereof sloughed off and left raw areas. The evidence also tends strongly to show that working in this dust-laden air for any considerable period of time was injurious to appellee's employees; that it had made a number of them sick, and that by reason of the fact they had never remained long at such work. Appellant knew these facts, and testified that if these men had stayed as long as he did it would be natural to suppose that they would be in his condition. He knew that it was having an injurious effect upon him, and because of that fact he complained to appellee time and time again, and wanted to be transferred to other work. He knew for some time before he was compelled to quit work that his condition was gradually becoming worse, and so much...