State ex rel. Puhlmann v. District Court of Brown County
| Decision Date | 18 May 1917 |
| Docket Number | 20,349 - (185) |
| Citation | 162 N.W. 678,137 Minn. 30 |
| Parties | STATE EX REL. OTTO PUHLMANN AND ANOTHER v. DISTRICT COURT OF BROWN COUNTY AND ANOTHER |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Upon the relation of Otto Puhlmann and others the supreme court granted its writ of certiorari directed to the district court for Brown county and the Honorable I. M. Olsen, the judge of that court, to review the decision in the proceedings under the Workmen's Compensation Act brought by Albertine Berg against relators Puhlmann. Affirmed.
Cause of death -- findings sustained by evidence.
1. The evidence sustains the findings of the court that the death of an employee, a mason's helper, who was stricken with paralysis while propelling a wheelbarrow in the course of his work, was caused by the rupture of a blood vessel, and that the cause of the rupture of the blood vessel was his muscular strain and exertion at the time.
Cause of death -- accident arising out of course of employment.
2. The evidence sustains the finding of the court that the death of the deceased was an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act (G.S. 1913, § 8203, et seq.)
K. A Campbell and B. Burness, for relators.
Alfred W. Mueller, for respondent.
Certiorari to the district court of Brown county to review an award under the Workmen's Compensation Act.
1. One Ferdinand Berg was stricken with paralysis on September 15, 1915, while in the employ of the relators in New Ulm, and died the next day. The award under review was made to his widow. The court found:
An important question, and logically the first one, is whether the finding that the cause of Berg's death was the rupture of a blood vessel, and the further finding that the cause of such rupture was the muscular strain or exertion to which he was subjected in propelling the wheelbarrow, are sustained by the evidence.
The evidence is meager. Berg, who was 59 years of age, was a mason's helper. About 8 o'clock in the morning he finished the work in which he was engaged and started with his wheelbarrow and tools for another piece of work a short distance away. His wheelbarrow was of iron and weighed some 80 pounds. His tools loaded on it weighed perhaps 50 pounds. A block and one-half of the distance was up a steep grade. One block, and as we infer from the testimony the last one, before he turned into the alley where he collapsed, was on a 1 to 11 grade. There is evidence that the alley was rough and full of "chuckholes" or "potholes." The weather about this time had been rainy. At the time he was stricken he suffered severe pain. No autopsy was had. His physician, who reached him within a few minutes, was of the opinion that he sustained a hemorrhage or rupture of the spinal cord, and his testimony supports the theory that it came from his exertion at the time. Other expert testimony supports it slightly. Taking the expert testimony, in connection with the circumstances attending the death, we think the inferences of fact drawn by the court are sustained.
2. The court found that the rupture of the blood vessel, which resulted in the death of the deceased, was an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act. Whether this finding is sustained is the remaining question.
The act provides for compensation to be paid by the...
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