Treadway v. Associated Transport, Inc.
| Decision Date | 20 June 1969 |
| Docket Number | Civ. A. No. 6598. |
| Citation | 302 F. Supp. 301 |
| Parties | Mrs. Martha TREADWAY v. ASSOCIATED TRANSPORT, INC. |
| Court | U.S. District Court — Eastern District of Tennessee |
Harry J. Bryant, Knoxville, Tenn., for plaintiff.
Ben F. McAuley, Robert Ray, Poore, Cox, Baker, McAuley, Ray & Byrne, Knoxville, Tenn., for defendant.
Mrs. Martha Treadway filed this action to recover workmen's compensation benefits for the death of her husband, Lawrence Treadway, who was an employee of the defendant at the time of his death. Plaintiff claims that her husband's death arose out of and in the course of his employment for the defendant and that she is entitled to benefits under the Workmen's Compensation Law of Tennessee.
Defendant denies liability upon the theory that the death may have arisen out of decedent's employment but did not arise in the course of his employment. Defendant says death arising out of employment is not sufficient to establish liability. In that connection, the Supreme Court of Tennessee in the old case of Hendrix v. Franklin State Bank, 154 Tenn. 287, 290 S.W. 30 (1926), stated that the words "arising out of" and "in the course of employment" are not synonymous. The term "arising out of employment" refers to the origin of the cause of the injury, while "in the course of employment" refers to the time, place and circumstances.
The evidence and stipulations in this case show that the decedent drove a tractor-trailer rig from Knoxville, Tennessee to Indianapolis, Indiana with a load of candy starting from Knoxville on the 26th day of December, 1968 at 1:42 a. m., which was on Thursday. He arrived in Indianapolis at 3:15 p.m. on the same date, the trip having consumed approximately 13.6 hours. He was called in Indianapolis at 11:02 p. m. and reported at 12:56 a. m. on December 27, 1968 to drive from Indianapolis to Nashville, Tennessee. He arrived at Nashville at 8:06 a.m. on December 27, 1968 (Friday). It took almost 24 minutes to change units while in Nashville, and he left Nashville at 8:30 a.m. and arrived in Knoxville at 2:12 p.m. on the same day.
Mr. Krichbaum, terminal manager of the defendant, talked to the decedent for some time after his arrival, as did Mr. Charles Thomas, who was at that time an employee of the defendant. Mr. Thomas talked with the decedent at or near the cashier's office at defendant's terminal until about 2:30 p. m. The talk concerned a road map and lasted about fifteen or twenty minutes. Decedent "seemed like himself" and made no complaints. Decedent left defendant's terminal about 2:30 for his home. Mr. Krichbaum observed nothing unusual about him.
The record is silent about the distance from the defendant's terminal to decedent's home. Although the testimony is not clear as to the time decedent arrived at his home, Mrs. Treadway, his widow, was of the opinion that he arrived between 2:00 and 2:30 p.m. If Mr. Thomas is correct in his testimony, the decedent arrived at his home at a later time than 2:30 p.m. as he did not leave the terminal until about that time.
When he arrived at his home, according to Mrs. Treadway, he was complaining about pain in his chest, and appeared completely exhausted. His face showed extreme distress. He held his hands and arms upward and complained of pain in the area of the heart. He took a couple of nitroglycerin pills, ate a sandwich and drank a glass of milk, and then retired to bed. He was in such pain that his wife sat on the side of his bed for sometime before going away. She left him with a smile on his face and eyes open.
About 10:30 p.m. of the same day, a call was received from a representative of the defendant requesting decedent to report to work at defendant's terminal. The call was from Mr. Pointer, dispatcher, and received by Mrs. Clark, daughter of decedent. Mrs. Clark went immediately to the room of her father and found him in a condition near death. She returned to the phone and told Mr. Pointer that her father was seriously sick and asked him to get in touch with Dr. Brooks and Mr. Maynard. He was unable to get in touch with Dr. Brooks; he did contact Mr. Maynard. In the meantime, Mr. Norman Wilkes came to the decedent's home in response to a call. He felt portions of decedent's body and found that he was warm under the arms but cold on the outside. His body was stiff and rigor mortis had set in.
Doctor Whittle, who is a general practitioner and who is presently the medical examiner for the defendant, had made three examinations of the decedent prior to his death, one in 1964, another in 1967 and the last on August 23, 1968. He found a systolic murmur in his heart on the last examination. His blood pressure was 130/60, which was normal. He knew that he had had previous heart attacks and that he was taking nitroglycerin. Dr. Whittle stated that 200 nitroglycerin pills a month is a high dosage.
Mrs. Treadway testified that her husband at one time had a regular run for the defendant, that while he had the regular run he took nitroglycerin pills but infrequently, not nearly at the rate of 200 pills a month; that after he took the extra run job, which was some time in October, 1968 and which he held until his death in December of that year, he averaged about 200 pills per month; that prior to taking over the new run he carried his nitroglycerin pills in a little bottle so long that they often crumbled into dust, thus indicating that he did not use them too frequently.
Doctor Whittle was frank enough to state that the stress and physical exertion of driving a tractor-trailer rig from Knoxville, Tennessee, to Indianapolis, Indiana, a distance of some 488 miles one way, would cause stress as well as fatigue to the body of a driver.
The stipulation indicates that there was rain and snow on one of the days that decedent drove. That would add stress to the driving. There is testimony to the effect that some of the tractors used by the defendant did not adequately pull the trailer. This testimony is too indefinite to be relevant to the issues.
The evidence shows, and the Court finds, that there was causal relationship between the fatal attack and the work of the decedent that was done on the trip from Knoxville to Indianapolis beginning on the 26th day of December, 1968 and ending the following day. His heart attack occurred immediately after his arrival at defendant's terminal in Knoxville or while he was on his way home from the terminal. He was in charge of the tractor-trailer rig 26 of the 36 hours consumed in the Knoxville-Indianapolis trip. This over-exertion, coupled with stress and strain, triggered the heart attack which resulted in his death.
The...
To continue reading
Request your trial