Sudduth v. Williams

• Decision Date: 16 December 1974
• Citation: 517 S.W.2d 520
• Parties: Marcie SUDDUTH, widow of Guy Lawrence Sudduth, Deceased, Appellant, v. Harold WILLIAMS d/b/a Williams Texaco Service and Continental Insurance Company, Appellees.
• Court: Tennessee Supreme Court

Page 520

517 S.W.2d 520

Marcie SUDDUTH, widow of Guy Lawrence Sudduth, Deceased, Appellant, v. Harold WILLIAMS d/b/a Williams Texaco Service and Continental Insurance Company, Appellees.

Supreme Court of Tennessee.

Dec. 16, 1974.

Larry K. Scroggs, Memphis, for appellant.

George L. Rice, Jr., Memphis, for appellees.

OPINION

HARBISON, Justice.

This is an action for workmen's compensation death benefits. Petitioner is the widow of decedent, Guy Lawrence Sudduth, who died on July 29, 1972, after having sustained a fall at his place of employment on July 24, 1972. The trial court dismissed the action, finding that the decedent fell as the result of an idiopathic attack, and that his injury was not caused by a hazard peculiar to his employment. The Court found that the injury did not have its origin in a risk connected with the employment nor was it causally connected therewith.

This Court, of course, reviews the case under the material evidence rule. It is well settled that if the findings of the trial judge are supported by inferences which may reasonably be drawn from the evidence, this Court will not disturb those findings, though the evidence may be reasonably capable of other or different inferences. Greeson v. American Lava Corp., 216 Tenn. 461, 392 S.W.2d 931 (1965); Lynch v. LaRue, 198 Tenn. 101, 278 S.W.2d 85 (1955).

There is little dispute concerning the facts of the case. The employer operated a service station in Shelby County, Tennessee, and on Saturday, July 22, 1972, the decedent worked a few hours for the employer on a trial basis. This was his first employment at the service station, and at the conclusion of his work on that date, he was paid a small sum and was told to return on the following Monday morning. He did return at about 8 o'clock on the morning of Monday, July 24, 1972, and apparently drove an automobile of a customer onto the grease rack in one of the service bays of the station. He was found unconscious and quivering or twitching at about 8:30 a.m. in the service bay, having fallen and sustained a laceration to the left side of his head. There is no evidence in the record that the decedent slipped or fell on grease or oil, the testimony being uncontradicted that in the area where he fell the floor was clean. When decedent was found, his head was a few inches from an oil catch, which had been placed beneath the automobile which was being serviced, but there is no evidence in the record that the decedent struck the oil catch, or that he struck anything else other than the floor, in his fall.

There were no actual eyewitnesses to the fall but a witness working in an adjoining bay heard a noise in the area where the decedent was working, and came upon the decedent a few seconds later.

The employer immediately summoned an ambulance, and the decedent was taken to the emergency room of the Baptist Hospital in Memphis. He arrived there at about 9:10 a.m. The emergency room records show a diagnosis of 'alcoholic seizure', stating:

'second seizure in 2 wks. Adult onset. Fell & lacerated forehead.'

The laceration of the decedent was sutured, and he was released within a short time. He was readmitted to the emergency room at about 11:55 a.m. on the same date, after having been found unconscious at a street intersection in Memphis, a fairly short distance from the hospital. There is no evidence as to whether the decedent did or did not receive any further injury from the time he left the hospital until he was readmitted, or as to what happened to him in the interim. When he was readmitted to the hospital, however, decedent was found to be suffering from a serious head injury. A neurosurgeon testified that the decedent developed a subdural hematoma, or blood clot on the left side of the brain, for which surgery was performed. The decedent did not recover, however, and he autopsy after his death revealed that he had sustained a fracture of the skull on the right side, although the fracture itself had not been revealed by X-rays taken prior to his death.

Although the widow of decedent denied having any knowledge of previous seizures suffered by him, she stated that he had been admitted to the Methodist Hospital in Memphis some three weeks prior to July 24, 1972, it being her understanding that he had become overheated while working for a previous employer. The records of the Methodist Hospital concerning this admission, however, contained a diagnosis of 'alcohol-withdrawal seizures'. Admission notes in the hospital record state that the decedent 'consumes 1/5 to 2/5 of alcohol daily for a long period of time.' The note further reads:

'This thirty-eight-year-old male was reported apparently as having a grandmal seizure while in the E R. History is that the man consumes quite a bit of alcohol and over the last several days has not had any due to the fact that he thought it was making him too shaky. He discontinued the alcohol suddenly and had the grand-mal seizure. He has never had any history of trauma. He has had one grand-mal seizure before related to the alcohol withdrawal. There are no other neurological findings.'

The widow of decedent testified that following the fall of decedent on the morning of July 24, 1972, the employer stated to her that the decedent had struck his head on the oil catch beneath the car which he was servicing. The employer, however, emphatically denied making this statement and, as previously stated, there is no evidence in the record that this occurred. The testimony is clear that there was no blood found at any place on the premises of the employer except on the floor immediately adjacent to the position where decedent was lying. The fall was either idiopathic in its origin or else it stands unexplained in the record.

The neurosurgeon who attended the decedent at Baptist Hospital testified on behalf of the petitioner. He was unable to explain the reason why the decedent was discharged from the emergency room after his initial admission, but he stated that there was no history of any second or subsequent injury sustained by the decedent after he left the emergency room. It was his opinion that the injuries sustained in the initial fall at the service station were the cause of the...