Vankirk v. State Compensation Commissioner, 11055
Decision Date | 19 May 1959 |
Docket Number | No. 11055,11055 |
Citation | 108 S.E.2d 567,144 W.Va. 447 |
Court | West Virginia Supreme Court |
Parties | Grace VANKIRK v. STATE COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER and Locksley Fuel Corporation (now Christopher Fuel Corporation). |
Syllabus by the Court
'Where, in the course of and arising out of his employment, and employee in good health and of strong physique, suffers physical injury which is followed by serious disabilities, competent physicians differing as to whether the disabilities are attributable to the injury, but only probable or conjectural reasons or causes are assigned by physicians in an effort to explain the disabilities on grounds other than the injury, the presumptions should be resolved in favor of the employee rather than against him.' Point 1, Syllabus, Pripich v. State Compensation Commissioner, et al., 112 W.Va. 540, .
Charles H. Haden, Morgantown, for appellant.
Clark B. Frame, Morgantown, for appellee.
GIVEN, President.
Claimant, widow of O. R. Vankirk, an employee of Locksley Fuel Corporation, claims benefits as a dependent under the workmen's compensation acts. The State Compensation Commissioner held that claimant was not entitled to benefits, on his finding that the death of the employee did not result from an injury suffered in the course of his employment. The Workmen's Compensation Appeal Board reversed the order of the commissioner.
The employee, about fifty four years of age, on December 12, 1956, while in the employment of Locksley Fuel Corporation, predecessor of Christopher Fuel Corporation, in the course of such employment, suffered a severe injury to the left middle finger, necessitating the amputation of the entire finger, which was done on the twentieth day of December, 1956. The employee was granted and paid a seven per cent disability for loss of the finger. In a very short time after the finger was amputated, though the lacerations necessitated by the amputation healed uneventfully, the employee complained of paralysis and blindness, and 'became so weak that he was unable to walk or to control his fingers'. On December 31, 1956, his family physician found . He was admitted to Johns Hopkins Hospital February 14, 1957, and discharged therefrom March 26, 1957. Though numerous examinations and tests were made by the hospital, the cause or origin of the affliction was undetermined. The hospital report shows that 'certain elements in the examination are suggestive of poly-arteritis, although this diagnosis can not be substantiated'.
The employee, on August 19, 1957, was examined by Doctor Lawrance S. Miller, who states in a letter-report that Doctor Miller further stated: Doctor Miller, however, was unable to diagnose the affliction, or to give any light on its origin or cause.
The deposition of Doctor C. Arch Logue, the family physician of the employee, was taken. From his testimony, and as well from the deposition of the widow-claimant, it appears that the employee, to the time of the injury, was 'in general good condition; he always worked'. Doctor Logue testified to the effect that polyarteritis is a collagen disease and 'a primary disease of the walls of the blood vessels, and one theory on it is that trauma can produce this thing'. He further testified to the effect that ; that after the amputation 'the color' of the left hand ; and that the first limb that the paralysis affected 'was the left hand, the one which he had injured, and the one that the finger was amputated on'. On the death certificate of the employee Doctor Logue wrote 'hypostatic pneumonia' and 'polyarteritis...
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