Vankirk v. State Compensation Commissioner, 11055

Decision Date19 May 1959
Docket NumberNo. 11055,11055
Citation108 S.E.2d 567,144 W.Va. 447
CourtWest Virginia Supreme Court
PartiesGrace 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 'This man presented quite a problem to me. This blindness and paralysis of his arm and so forth * * *'. 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 'He was brought to the office in a wheelchair, and he was found to be very severely disabled. He was unable to raise either arm, or to open his tightly clenched hands, or to stand at all by himself, and in fact, he showed an almost complete paralysis of his right leg and he was unable to move it at all.' Doctor Miller further stated: 'It was difficult to see how this patient's middle finger injury of the left hand could have produced this severe amount of disability which he shows at the present time. At the present time the patient is certainly 100 percent disabled, but I could see no relationship between this and the finger amputation.' 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 'As I say, I cannot say definitely that this injury caused this man's death, because I don't know. As I said before, he was well until this injury, and he was never well afterwards, so I would have to say that I felt the injury contributed to his death, because there is no other way for me to explain it'; that after the amputation 'the color' of the left hand 'wasn't good. I mean the flap had grown over, but instead of having a nice pink color to the skin in the entire hand it kind of branched out and was white, and the circulation wasn't good'; 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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10 cases
  • Pennington v. State Workmen's Compensation Com'r
    • United States
    • West Virginia Supreme Court
    • July 7, 1970
    ... ... 154 W.Va. 378 ... Otis V. PENNINGTON ... STATE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER and island Creek ... Coal Company ... No. 12934 ... Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia ... Vankirk v. State Compensation Commissioner, 144 W.Va. 447, 108 S.E.2d 567; Morris v. State Compensation ... ...
  • Dombrosky v. State Compensation Director, 12393
    • United States
    • West Virginia Supreme Court
    • March 23, 1965
    ... ... State Compensation Commissioner, 130 W.Va. 577 [44 S.E.2d 626] ...         2. 'A decision of the Workmen's Compensation ... the appeal board should also be approved and confirmed under the holding of this Court in Vankirk v. State Compensation Commissioner, 144 W.Va. 447, 108 S.E.2d 567, and Pripich v. State ... ...
  • Bradford v. Workers' Compensation Com'r
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    • West Virginia Supreme Court
    • September 5, 1991
    ... ... WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER and Ranger Fuel ... Corporation, Appellees ... No. 20047 ... State Compensation Director, 150 W.Va. 161, 144 S.E.2d 663 (1965), overruled on ... 161, 144 S.E.2d 663 [ (1965) ]; Vankirk v. State Compensation Commissioner, 144 W.Va. 447, 108 S.E.2d 567 [ (1959) ... ...
  • Barnett v. State Workmen's Compensation Com'r
    • United States
    • West Virginia Supreme Court
    • March 3, 1970
    ... ... 153 W.Va. 796 ... Betty J. BARNETT, Widow, etc ... STATE WORKMEN'S COMPENSATION COMMISSIONER, and Gauley Coal & ... Coke Company ... No. 12906 ... Supreme Court of Appeals of West ... State Compensation Commissioner, 112 W.Va. 540, 166 S.E. 4, and Vankirk v. State Compensation Commissioner, 144 W.Va. 447, 108 S.E.2d 567. The only syllabus point of the ... ...
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