Schrader v. Mills

• Decision Date: 12 September 1949
• Docket Number: No. 16261.,16261.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: SCHRADER. v. MONARCH MILLS et al.

55 S.E.2d 285

SCHRADER.

v.MONARCH MILLS et al.

No. 16261.

Supreme Court of South Carolina.

Sept. 12, 1949.

The Industrial Commission made an award to Paul Schrader for an injury which arose out of and in the course of his employment which resulted in serious disability and disfigurement by reason of employee having been bitten by a black widow spider and the Monarch Mills, employer, and Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, insurance carrier, appealed.

The Common Pleas Court, Union County, T. B. Greneker, J., affirmed the award and the employer and insurance carrier appealed.

The Supreme Court, Taylor, J., held that evidence was sufficient to sustain the Commission's finding that claimant received an injury which arose out of and in the course of his employment and affirmed the order of the court.

Osborne, Butler & Moore, Spartanburg, for appellants.

J. Fred McLure and John D. Long, both of Union, for respondent.

TAYLOR, Justice

The respondent, Paul Schrader, contends that on April 27, 1947, while employed by the appellant, Monarch Mills, he suffered an injury, which arose out of and in the course of his employment, by reason of being bitten by a black widow spider, and that this injury resulted in serious disability and disfigurement.

Claim was duly filed with the South Carolina Industrial Commission, and a hearing held thereon resulted in an opinion and award in favor of claimant, dated December 23, 1947. Appellants made application for a review by the entire Commission, which, in a majority opinion, adopted the opinion and award of the Hearing Commissioner. In due course, appellants appealed to the Court of Common Pleas for Union County, the matter being heard by the Honorable T. B. Greneker, who filed an order dated February 4, 1949, overruling all exceptions, and appellants now come to this Court upon exceptions which raise the one question of whether or not there was evidence from which a reasonable inference could be drawn that respondent's injuries arose out of his employment.

"In reviewing this case on appeal, this Court is of course cognizant of the well-founded rule of law that the Industrial Commission being the fact-finding body and this Court and the Circuit Court both being appellate Courts in workmen's compensation matters, this and the Circuit Courts can only review the facts to determine whether or not there is any competent evidence to support the findings of the fact-finding body. If there is, the Courts are without power to pass upon the force and effect of such evidence. An award may of course be reversed if thereis an absence of any competent evidence to support it, but in Workmen's Compensation cases the Courts are not the triers of facts. If the facts proved are capable as a matter of law of sustaining the inference of fact drawn from them by the Industrial Commission, its findings are conclusive in the absence of fraud and neither this Court nor the Court of Common Pleas is at liberty to interfere with them. Anderson v. Campbell Tile Co., 202 S.C. 54, 24 S.E.2d 104; Crawford et al, v. Town of Winnsboro et al., 205 S.C. 72, 30 S.E.2d 841; Lanford v. Clinton Cotton Mills, 204 S.C. 423, 30 S.E.2d 36; Strawhorn v. J. A. Chapman Const. Co., 202 S.C. 43, 24 S.E.2d 116; Cokeley v. Robert Lee, Inc., 197 S.C. 157, 14 S.E.2d 889; Shehane v. Springs Cotton Mills, 206 S.C. 334, 34 S.E.2d 180; Green v. Grinnell Co., 213 S.C. 116, 48 S.E.2d 644; White v. Carolina Light & Power Co., S.C, 53 S.E.2d 872; Buff v. Columbia Baking Co. et al., S.C., 53 S.E.2d 879."

An injury arises in the course of employment within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act, Code 1942, § 7035-1 et seq., when it occurs within the period of the employment at a place where the employee reasonably may be in the performance of his duties and while he is fulfilling those duties or engaged in doing something incidental thereto. An accident arises out of the employment when it arises because of it, as when the employment is a contributing proximate cause. These conditions must concur before the act can apply. Johnson v. Merchant's Fertilizer Co. et al., 198 S.C. 373, 17 S.E.2d 695.

Claimant testified that on the date in question he was employed by the Monarch Mills Co. at their Lockhart plant, and a portion of his testimony appears as follows:

"Q. What time did you go to work that night, Mr. Schrader? A. Twelve o'clock.

"Q. Now tell the Commissioner what happened after you went to work that night. A. Well, during the night I had taken a dose of medicine and I had been in the water-house some two or three different times.

"Q. What kind of medicine had you taken? A. Took a dose of Black Draught. And the last time--not the last time I was in there, either, but the last time I had an action, and after that I felt a stinging like something bit me, and I went back in there and looked--

"Q. Where was that stinging that you felt? A. On my penis. I went back in there and looked, and there was a little whelp about so long (indicating) and about as big as a match stem.

"Q. On your penis? A. Yes, sir.

"Q. What took place after that? A. In about thirty or forty minutes, something like that, I began to get sick on the stomach and vomited two or three different times. I thought I would work until eight o'clock, and about ten or fifteen minutes to seven I went and told my second hand I was sick and had to go home, couldn't make it no longer.

"Q. Who was your second hand? A. Arthur Crocker. I had my car down back of the mill and I went down there and 1 vomit a good long while there. I drove on to the house, and when I opened the door to get out I got sick again and I was sick there ten minutes. Finally I got in the house and went to bed, and I don't remember much of that day.

"Q. Mr. Schrader, when you got to the house and before you went to bed did you look at your penis? A. Yes, sir.

"Q. What condition was it in there? A. It was swollen some more than it was when I left the mill.

"Q. Then what happened? A. It just kept on swelling and hurting, and that evening my wife called the doctor and he came

up there.

******

"Q. Mr. Schrader, have you ever noticed any spider...