Pannell v. State Comp. Comm'r, 9583.

• Citation: 30 S.E.2d 129
• Decision Date: 25 April 1944
• Docket Number: No. 9583.,9583.
• Court: Supreme Court of West Virginia
• Parties: PANNELL. v. STATE COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER et al.

30 S.E.2d 129

PANNELL.
v.
STATE COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER et al.

No. 9583.

Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia.

April 25, 1944.

[30 S.E.2d 129]

Rehearing Denied June 6, 1944.

Syllabus by the Court.

Where death ensues following a cerebral hemorrhage, suffered by an employee in the course of his employment, immediately following a specific isolated event which might have caused the same; and there is no clear showing that the hemorrhage resulted from other causes; compensation should be awarded to the dependents of the deceased on the basis that his death occurred in the course of and resulting from his employment.

Appeal from Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Law by Carrie Pannell, claimant, for the death of her husband, R. P. Pan nell, opposed by the Vera Pocahontas Coal Company, employer. To review an order of the Compensation Appeal Board denying her compensation, the claimant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Patrick J. Flanagan, of Welch, for appellant.

J. Randolph Tucker, of Welch, for appellees.

FOX, Judge.

The claimant has appealed from an order of the Compensation Appeal Board, denying her compensation as the widow of R. P. Pannell, an employee of the Vera Pocahontas Coal Company, who died on the 19th day of January, 1942, from cerebral hemorrhage. The attack from which he died came while he was in the course of his employment as a coal miner; and it is contended by the claimant that the attack resulted from said employment because of the presence of carbon dioxide, commonly called "black damp", in his working place in the mine. Specifically, her claim is that her husband had high blood pressure, and the presence of this poisonous gas operated to raise that pressure to the extent that it caused a breaking down of a blood vessel in the brain, which resulted in his death. There is no dispute as to the direct cause of his death. All the medical testimony is that he suffered what is termed a massive cerebral hemorrhage, which means that there was a rupture of a blood vessel and a diffusion of blood throughout the brain cavities. The employer questions the claim that decedent had high blood pressure, but in our view of the case it is of little importance whether he did or did not suffer from this ailment.

The decedent was working in what may be termed a dead end working place in a mine operated by his employer, and at a point near an abandoned portion of a mine which had been operated by another coal company. Air was forced into the mine though an air course which passed near, but not through the working place in which decedent was working. The air was diverted from its main course through another channel in which was constructed a curtain or brattice work for the purpose of checking the air in that course, and thereby forcing it back into the working place of the decedent. It is clearly shown that there was supposed to be danger of bad air

[30 S.E.2d 130]

in this dead end working place, and the mine foreman was cautioned to be on guard against this condition. This mine foreman, Snyder, testified that he examined the working place in question during the morning of January 19, and found no gas. Two other miners who worked some little distance from the point at which decedent worked, testify that there was some gas in their working place, but apparently not in dangerous quantities. Decedent's working place was inspected by the mine foreman the day following decedent's attack, and no gas was found, and on the day following the same working place was examined by an inspector of the State Mine Department, who found the air in a healthy condition. While there is some evidence indicating the existence of gas in the working place of the decedent, prior to the break-through into the abandoned mine hereafter to be discussed, we do not think such evidence is sufficient to establish that gas in dangerous quantities existed at that time. The evidence is that the decedent and his stepson, who was working with him, had suffered no apparent ill effects up to the time of the break through into the abandoned mine. They went to work at the regular time, and worked two or three hours until about the middle of the day when the decedent's attack came. The fact that, up to this time, they had suffered no ill effects from their work argues that, prior to the breakthrough into the abandoned mine, there was probably no gas in harmful quantities in their working place in the mine.

The decedent and Harold Spencer were working together in this mine. They were only a few feet apart. Decedent in working at the face of the coal...