Springfield Dist. Coal Mining Co. v. Indus. Comm'n

• Decision Date: 21 June 1922
• Docket Number: No. 14580.,14580.
• Citation: 303 Ill. 528,135 N.E. 792
• Parties: SPRINGFIELD DIST. COAL MINING CO. v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

303 Ill. 528

135 N.E. 792

SPRINGFIELD DIST. COAL MINING CO.

v.INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 14580.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

June 21, 1922.

Error to Circuit Court, Sangamon County; E. S. Smith, Judge.

Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by John Jackson, employee, opposed by the Springfield District Coal Mining Company, employer. An award of compensation by the Industrial Commission was affirmed, and the employer brings error.

Reversed and remanded, with directions.

T. W. Quinlan, of Springfield, for plaintiff in error.

Kerr, MacDonald & Murphy, of Chicago, for defendant in error.

CARTER, J.

John Jackson, the applicant, filed a claim before the Industrial Commission for compensation on account of an injury sustained while working for plaintiff in error in the line of his employment. The matter was referred to an arbitrator, who found on June 4, 1919, that the applicant was not entitled to recovery under the Workmen's Compensation Act (Hurd's Rev. St. 1921, c. 48, §§ 126-152i). On appeal to the Industrial Commission, that body, on hearing, entered an order March 10, 1920, awarding applicant $9.76 a week for 358 weeks and $5.92 for one week, and thereafter a pension for life of $23.33 a month; also awarding $30 for medical aid. That finding of the Industrial Commission was taken to the circuit court, and on March 1, 1921, the finding was reversed, and the cause remanded to the commission, and the remanding order was filed with the commission April 11, 1921; the circuit court holding that the award of the commission was excessive, and that the finding of total disability is not sustained by the evidence. On a rehearing before the commission additional evidence was taken, and the commission found on June 23, 1921, that the applicant should recover $6.76 per week for 416 weeks for partial disability. This second finding was taken to the circuit court of Sangamon county December 23, 1921, by certiorari, and the award of the commission was affirmed, and the cause has been brought here by writ of error for review.

Jackson, the applicant, was 56 years of age at the date of the alleged accident, and had been working, off and on, for years as a miner for the plaintiff in error. It is conceded that on September 18, 1918, the relation of employerand employee existed, that the applicant's earnings for the preceding year were $1,015.26, and that both parties were subject to the provisions of the Workmen's Compensation Act. The applicant claimed that he was injured on September 18, 1918, by being overcome with bad air, and that he received a complete permanent disability therefrom. The evidence seems to show clearly that on the day in question the applicant was compelled by physical disability to leave the mine of plaintiff in error, where he was working, and one of the important questions to be decided is whether or not this physical disability was caused by breathing bad air in the mine, or whether his physical condition on that day was caused by former disabilities, some of which were, in their nature, organic.

There was evidence offered by the applicant himself, and by other witnesses, to the effect that the ventilation in the room of the mine where the applicant worked was very poor on September 18, 1918; that there was no cross-cut in that room, and that the air was thereby rendered foul. There was considerable testimony on the part of the coal company that there was a cross-cut through the room at the time in question which furnished sufficient fresh air for the miners working in that room or adjacent thereto. The applicant testified that he was overcome in the room by bad air, which was caused by a blue kind of gas or smoke in the room, which choked him; that he went for a drink of water; that he then got his shovel and started to work again, and the gas caught him; that began to get weaker, and sat down in the middle of the track, becoming unconscious; that when he came to his senses he was nervous, had a headache, and his eyes felt as if they would pop out; that he succeeded in getting to the opening in the mine; that on the way he passed the face boss, and told him the air had caught him, and that he could not do anything; that at the bottom of the shaft he met the bottom boss, and told him he was sick and wanted to go to the top; that he went home and sent for Dr. McMahon, who had previously treated him. The applicant testified that he had been in fairly good physical condition before September 18, 1918, but had never been well since that date, and that his physical condition was caused by the bad air in the mine on that date; that a few days after he went back to the mine and tried to work, but could not stay.

Dr. McMahon, who treated Jackson, testified that the applicant had bronchial asthma and a sympathetic heart affection with it; that this affection is sometimes called miner's asthma; that when he was called on September 18, 1918, it was his opinion that the applicant had been affected by bad air, which brought about the acute physical condition that he was in on that day; that the bad air of the mine had affected...