Storie v. Taylor Supply Co.
Decision Date | 17 March 1950 |
Citation | 228 S.W.2d 94,26 Beeler 149,190 Tenn. 149 |
Parties | STORIE v. TAYLOR SUPPLY CO. et al. 26 Beeler 149, 190 Tenn. 149, 228 S.W.2d 94 |
Court | Tennessee Supreme Court |
Burt Francis, Nashville, for complainant appellee.
Bailey, Powell & Davis, Nashville, for defendants appellants.
This is a Workmen's Compensation case.
William M. Storie, deceased, husband of the appellee, worked as a traveling salesman for the appellant, Taylor Supply Company. On March 31, 1947, in line with his duty he drove his automobile to Gallatin, Tennessee, and surrounding territories on the business of his master. It is rather clear from the record that he did not finish his business there until rather late on that afternoon (seeing one of his customers after closing time in the store) and then while driving back to Nashville, where he lived, his car went out of control and turned over some two or three times, rather severely injuring Storie. He either got a taxicab or someone else got one for him and drove him to a local hospital in Nashville. His sister was notified that night about 10:00 o'clock that he was in the hospital. She in turn got in touch with his wife who for the first time learned of his accident about 11:00 o'clock on the night of March 31, 1947. In the meantime she had become rather worried because he had not arrived home, as he was supposed to be there for dinner with guests, and she had called the president of the company for which he worked. Mr. Storie was x-rayed and examined rather thoroughly at the hospital and no fractured bones could be found. He was bruised up considerably and had a large knot over one of his eyes. The doctor who saw him that night and subsequently discharged him the following day said that he was apparently rational and normal. Some of his relatives who saw him at the hospital say that he was not rational. He was discharged from the hospital the following day and went home where within a very short time, a space of 48 to 60 hours, he apparently went insane, having ideas of grandeur. He piled all of his personal property on the floor saying that he was going to have an auction and get wealthy from this auction. As a result of this condtion his wife contacted another hospital and had him examined there but they were not able to take care of patients in his condition. As a result of this an effort was made to get him into some sanitarium or place where an insane person could be properly cared for. They were unable to immediately find such a place. Storie was placed in jail overnight. The following day the president of the company for which he worked was able to get him committed to the Davidson County Hospital where he stayed for some two weeks when he died. Apparently the man never gained his normal functions after he was placed in this institution.
At the time of the trial no witness could be found who saw the wreck or knew anything about it. The facts concerning the wreck had to be largely proved by what the president of the defendant company had discovered by investigation or had been told by Mr. Storie about the wreck. The president of this company though was apparently well convinced that this man had received his injuries from a wreck. The record is very positive that Storie did not drink or have any habits of the kind which might have produced a wreck. The wreck was apparently caused by a blow-out or something of the kind causing the car to turn over two or three times.
The chancellor after very carefully listening to the witnesses testify, and the arguments pro and con by respective counsel, concluded that Mr. Storie's death resulted from an aggravation of a preexisting disease by the accidental injury he received in the automobile accident while on the mission of his employer. He, therefore, entered a decree in favor of the widow for the full amount of the statutory allowance for such a death, the wages of the employee being sufficient to bring the amount up to the maximum allowed by the statute. The defendant (appellant here) seasonably filed a motion for new trial which was overruled and the case appealed to this Court. We have very carefully studied this record and the authorities cited in the briefs in support of the respective positions of the parties in arriving at our conclusions to be hereinafter set out.
As presented to us, the only serious insistence made by the appellant is 'that the death of the said William M. Storie, deceased, was not caused by the injuries received in the alleged automobile accident but by the cause stated in the death certificate, convulsions of syphilis, due to the general paralysis of the insane, and that, therefore, the Appellee is not entitled to any recovery against the Defendants under the...
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...are not applicable. We are convinced that the holding of the Court in these cases was controlling authority. In Storie v. Taylor Supply Co., 190 Tenn. 149, 228 S.W.2d 94, 97 (not referred to in the original opinion) it was held that 'the employer takes the workman as he finds him and 'assum......
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