Senter v. MacLeod

• Decision Date: 06 October 1959
• Citation: Senter v. MacLeod, 154 A.2d 698, 102 N.H. 258 (N.H. 1959)
• Parties: Violet M. SENTER et al. v. Robert P. MacLEOD et al.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

Page 698

154 A.2d 698

102 N.H. 258

Violet M. SENTER et al. v. Robert P. MacLEOD et al.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

Argued Sept. 2, 1959.

Decided Oct. 6, 1959.

Morris D. Stein, Nashua (by brief and orally), for plaintiffs.

McLaughlin & Enright, Nashua (Kenneth F. McLaughlin, Nashua, orally), for defendants.

BLANDIN, Justice.

The parties agree that the sole issue is 'whether or not Clyde R. Senter's death arose out of and in the course of his employment,' so that the plaintiffs are entitled to compensation under RSA ch. 281, as amended by Laws 1957, c. 187.

It appears that at the time of his decease on August 16, 1957, Senter, husband of the plaintiff Violet M. Senter, and father of the plaintiff James P. Senter, was employed in the welding shop of the defendant MacLeod Company. There was testimony that on Sunday, August 4, 1957, on a day when he was not working for the defendant and some two weeks before his death, Senter broke a gallon jug of carbon tetrachloride in his cellar where he had gone to clean his own paint brushes. Shortly thereafter he became dizzy, lay down near where the carbon tetrachloride was spilled and slept for an hour or two. The next day he was taken ill, became nauseated and continued so until his death. On August 14, he was taken to the hospital where he died two days later.

His own physician testified that the cause of Senter's death was 'over-inhalation of carbon tetrachloride' causing death due to kidney damage. He further gave the opinion that only a heavy or acute exposure, such as the deceased received in...