Shatoska v. International Grain Transfer, Inc.

• Decision Date: 05 April 1983
• Docket Number: No. 82,82
• Citation: 430 So.2d 1255
• Parties: Troy W. SHATOSKA v. INTERNATIONAL GRAIN TRANSFER, INC. CA 0772.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 1255

430 So.2d 1255

Troy W. SHATOSKA v. INTERNATIONAL GRAIN TRANSFER, INC.

No. 82 CA 0772.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana First Circuit.

April 5, 1983.

Rehearing Denied May 20, 1983.

Edward Shamis, Jr., Slidell, for plaintiff-appellee.

A. Clay Pierce, Jr., Baton Rouge, for defendant-appellant.

Before COVINGTON, LANIER and ALFORD, JJ.

LANIER, Judge.

This is a suit for workmen's compensation benefits for total and permanent disability, medical payments and statutory penalties. Judgment was rendered in the trial court in favor of the employee awarding him compensation benefits for total and permanent disability, ¹ recognizing his entitlement to medical benefits, ² fixing the attorney fee to which his counsel is entitled, ³ granting him legal interest from date of judicial demand "for all monies awarded under this judgment", and casting the employer and its insurer for all costs. The trial court denied the claim for statutory penalties. This suspensive appeal followed. The employee answered the appeal seeking statutory penalties and a recognition of his entitlement to future medical expenses as they occur.

FACTS

In May of 1980, Troy Shatoska was employed as a dragline (crane) operator by International Grain Transfer, Inc. (International). The Rockwood Insurance Company (Rockwood) was the workmen's compensation insurer of International. On May 6, 1980, Shatoska went to work at 6:00 A.M. During the day, Shatoska felt badly and had pains on two occasions, once while lifting a ship hold cover, and once while operating the dragline. When the dragline crew commenced changing a section of the dragline's boom, Shatoska stayed inside the cab of the dragline and did not do the outside manual labor. He complained several times during the day of headache, tightness in the chest and indigestion. The crew worked until midnight on May 6, 1980. Shatoska went home with his son, ate supper and went to bed.

At approximately 4:30 A.M. on May 7, 1980, Shatoska was awakened by severe chest pains and pain under his armpits. His son rushed him to the emergency room of the East Ascension Hospital in Gonzales, Louisiana. His condition was diagnosed as a sub-endocardial infarction (a form of heart attack). Shatoska remained in the hospital until he was discharged on May 18, 1980, when he was released and referred to his private physician.

On June 9, 1980, Shatoska consulted Dr. R.R. Howard, a specialist in cardiology and internal medicine. He gave a history of sub-endocardial myocardial infarction. Dr. Howard gave him medication for this condition. Shatoska again visited Dr. Howard on July 7, 1980. He had no discomfort and his EKG showed improvement. Dr. Howard continued him on his medication. Shatoska again saw Dr. Howard on August 18, 1980, and complained of numbness in his hands. Dr. Howard advised him to try light work, but that he was not capable of doing heavy strenuous activities. Dr. Howard described Shatoska's condition as indicating progrometer warnings (possible future problems). On September 29, 1980, Shatoska again visited Dr. Howard and gave a history of feeling weak, but with no fainting spells.

On November 6, 1980, Shatoska visited Dr. Howard and gave a history of pain associated with some old rib fractures. Examination revealed no evidence of angina at that time. On November 7, 1980, Shatoska was admitted to the coronary intensive care unit of the Slidell Memorial Hospital suffering with what was diagnosed as an acute anterolateral myocardial infarction (heart attack). He gave a history of working on his boat which precipitated this condition. Shatoska remained in the hospital until he was discharged on November 18, 1980.

Shatoska testified that in October of 1981, he commenced working for Lake Contractors as a dragline operator making $9.00 an hour for doing the same type of work that he did for International. He was doing this same type of work on the date of the trial, January 15, 1982. Prior to October of 1981, he also worked as a dragline operator for Used Machinery in Slidell, Louisiana, receiving $9.00 per hour and doing the same type of work that he was doing for International.

ACCIDENT

If an employee receives personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment, his employer is liable for compensation benefit and medical payments. La.R.S. 23:1031. An accident occurs in the course of employment when it happens during the time of employment and at a place contemplated by the employment. An accident arises out of the employment when it results from some risk to which the employee is subjected in the course of his employment and to which he would not have been subjected had he not been so employed. When the performance of the usual and customary duties of a workman causes or contributes to a physical breakdown, the statutory requirements for an "accidental" injury are present. Guidry v. Sline Industrial Painters, Inc., 418 So.2d 626 (La.1982). Heart disease and heart attacks caused by the work done by an employee are "accidents" and are compensable under the Louisiana Workmen's Compensation Law. Adams v. New Orleans Public Service Inc., 418 So.2d 485 (La.1981); Roussel v. Colonial Sugars Company, 318 So.2d 37 (La.1975).

CAUSATION

The chain of causation required by La.R.S. 23:1031 is that the employment causes the accident, the accident causes injury, and the injury causes disability. Where there is proof of an accident and of the following disability without any intervening cause, it is presumed that the accident caused the disability. It is not necessary to determine the exact cause of the disability. Guillory v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Insurance Company, 420 So.2d 119 (La.1982). The burden is on an employee to show by a preponderance of the evidence that the work effort, stress or strain in reasonable probability contributed in some degree to the heart accident. ⁴ If the activities in which the worker is engaged entail exertion, stress or strain greater than would be involved in everyday nonemployment life and he experiences a heart accident, he has made a prima facie showing that the accident arose out of, or was connected with, the employment. Guidry v. Sline Industrial Painters, Inc., supra, 418 So.2d at 633.

The issue of whether or not Shatoska's employment caused his heart attack (accident) was intensely litigated in the trial court. Shatoska testified that he reported for work at 6:00 A.M. on May 6, 1980. He and his crew worked an 18 hour shift and left work at approximately midnight. He did not feel well all day. He attributed his discomfort to indigestion. He experienced chest pains sharper than any he had experienced before. He first experienced the pain while operating the dragline and subsequently when he was moving hatch covers.

Keith Roche, the night foreman for International, testified that his crew was working maintenance on May 6, 1980. He was aware that Shatoska did not feel well all day. Shatoska complained of indigestion and headache and was allowed to remain in the cab of the dragline instead of doing the usual and customary work.

Ronnie Shatoska, plaintiff's son, testified that his father complained of pains in his chest during the day which he attributed to indigestion. When the shift was over at midnight, Ronnie drove his father home in his father's truck because his father did not feel well. They went straight home, ate and went to bed. Ronnie's wife awakened him at about 4:30 A.M. on May 7, 1980, and advised him that his father was in severe pain. He drove his father to the East Ascension Hospital where he received treatment.

Lynn Shatoska, plaintiff's brother, testified that he operated a dragline on the same shift. His testimony corroborates the other testimony regarding Troy Shatoska's symptoms on May 6, 1980. Lynn also testified that Troy talked of a tight feeling in his chest when they climbed the levee to get their vehicles to go home.

Shatoska's treating physician, Dr. R.R. Howard, testified as follows:

"Q Yes, sir. Do you feel that the condition that he suffers from now and which he suffered from when you first saw him was a result of the work that I just described to you?

"A Now, you're getting into the old dogmatic problem that we have had since antiquity, of which comes first. He has hardening of the arteries and then the coronary arteries. The work certainly would aggravate it, but that is not really a--it is a cause, but it is not the actual cause. The actual cause is his aging process and the arthrogenesis of his coronary arteries causing an occlusion, lack of blood supply to a particular area of his heart. The heart muscle dies and an infarction occurs. This is a heart attack. It can be precipitated by exertion, it can be precipitated by stress of any sort. That is the best answer I could give you." (Emphasis added).

After considering the above evidence, the trial judge determined that Shatoska suffered an on-the-job episode with his heart on May 6, 1980, which progressed to be a heart attack in the early morning hours of May 7, 1980, without intervening causes. This factual determination by the trial judge is not clearly wrong. Arceneaux v. Domingue, 365 So.2d 1330 (La.1978). See, for example, Chapman v. Belden Corporation, 414 So.2d 1283 (La.App. 3rd Cir.1982).

In addition to proving that his employment caused his "accident", a claimant in a workmen's compensation case must also prove that the "accident" caused his injury and the injury caused his resulting disability. An employee's disability will be presumed to have resulted from an employment accident if before the accident the employee was in good health, but commencing with the accident the symptoms of the disabling condition appear and continuously manifest themselves. The evidence must show that there is a reasonable possibility of causal connection between the accident and the disabling condition. This presumption is not a conclusive one; rather, it...