New River Coal Co. v. Files, 6 Div. 738
| Court | Supreme Court of Alabama |
| Citation | 215 Ala. 64,109 So. 360 |
| Docket Number | 6 Div. 738 |
| Parties | NEW RIVER COAL CO. v. FILES. |
| Decision Date | 30 June 1926 |
109 So. 360
215 Ala. 64
NEW RIVER COAL CO.
v.
FILES.
6 Div. 738
Supreme Court of Alabama
June 30, 1926
Certiorari to Circuit Court, Walker County; R.L. Blanton, Judge.
Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Jasper Files, claimant, opposed by the New River Coal Company, employer. Judgment for claimant, and the employer petitions for certiorari. Transferred from Court of Appeals under Code 1923, § 7326. Writ denied and judgment affirmed.
Percy, Benners & Burr and Salem Ford, all of Birmingham, for appellant.
Ray & Cooner, of Jasper, for appellee.
BOULDIN, J.
"Accident" is defined in our Workmen's Compensation Law to mean "an unexpected or unforseen event, happening suddenly and violently with or without human fault, and producing at the time injury to the physical structure of the body, by accidental means." Code, § 75961. "Personal injuries *** shall not include a disease unless the disease results proximately from the accident." Id. (j).
The evidence for plaintiff tended to show that while engaged in coal mining he was overcome and for a time rendered unconscious from breathing carbon dioxide or carbon monoxide, or both; that the bad air was due to insufficient ventilation; that the immediate cause of his suffocation was a current of such air passing through an opening he was making into a room where other workmen had been shooting, the gases from the shots not having disappeared.
We have no difficulty in holding that whatever injury and disability resulted proximately from this event was due to accident within the meaning of the act. Whether his suffocation resulted from breathing such air for several hours, or the inflowing air from the other room for a few minutes, the event "happened suddenly and violently," as contradistinguished from occupational disease. Taking this evidence as true, the injury was referable to a definite time, place, and circumstances. 1 Honnold on Workmen's Com. § 138, p. 539; 1 Schneider's Work.Com.L., § 135, pp. 303 to 310.
A disease "results proximately from the accident" if the disease is induced by lowered resistance proximately caused by the accident, or if it is aggravated or accelerated by the accident so that the disabling injury results proximately from the accident-- would not have developed but for the accident. The benefits of the Workmen's Compensation Law (Code, §§ 7543-7597) are not limited to those in perfect health. The test is: Was the accident a proximate...
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Stevenson v. Lee Moor Contracting Co., 4523.
...160 A. 455 (workman employed in a refrigerator room for an hour resulting in pneumonia, from which he died); New River Coal Co. v. Files, 215 Ala. 64, 109 So. 360 (coal miner injured from breathing carbon dioxide gas); [115 P.2d 352] Brown v. St. Joseph Lead Co., 60 Idaho 49, 87 P.2d 1000 (......
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Stevenson v. Lee Moor Contracting Co., 4523.
...160 A. 455 (workman employed in a refrigerator room for an hour resulting in pneumonia, from which he died); New River Coal Co. v. Files, 215 Ala. 64, 109 So. 360 (coal miner injured from breathing carbon dioxide gas); Brown v. St. Joseph Lead Co., 60 Idaho 49, [115 P.2d 352] 87 P.2d 1000 (......
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Knaup v. Western Coal & Mining Co., 35659
...1412; 90 A. L. R., 619; 23 A. L. R., 335; 6 A. L. R., 1463; Industrial Comm. of Colorado v. Ule, 48 P.2d 803; New River Coal Co. v. Felis, 109 So. 360, 215 Ala. 64; Industrial Comm. of Ohio v. Roth, 120 N.E. 173, 98 Ohio St. 34; Sullivan Min. Co. v. Aschenback, 33 F.2d 3; Van Vleet v. Pub. ......
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Knaup v. Western Coal & Min. Co., 35659.
...1412; 90 A.L.R., 619; 23 A.L.R., 335; 6 A.L.R., 1463; Industrial Comm. of Colorado v. Ule, 48 Pac. (2d) 803; New River Coal Co. v. Felis, 109 So. 360, 215 Ala. 64; Industrial Comm. of Ohio v. Roth, 120 N.E. 173, 98 Ohio St. 34; Sullivan Min. Co. v. Aschenback, 33 Fed. (2d) 3; Van Vleet v. P......