West v. North Carolina De Partment Of Conservation And Dev.
| Decision Date | 22 September 1948 |
| Docket Number | No. 23.,23. |
| Citation | 49 S.E.2d 398,229 N.C. 232 |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
| Parties | WEST et al. v. NORTH CAROLINA DE PARTMENT OF CONSERVATION AND DEVELOPMENT. |
Appeal from Superior Court, Dare County; W. J. Bone, Judge.
Proceeding under the Workmen's Compensation Act by Mrs. Genevieve Holle-man West, widow, and others, as daughters, claimants, opposed by North Carolina Department of Conservation and Development, employer and self-insurer, to recover compensation for the death of Rupert E. West, who was employed as a district game warden. From a judgment affirming an order of the full commission denying an award, plaintiff appeals.
Affirmed.
Workmen's compensation case instituted by dependents of Rupert E. West, deceased employee of defendant.
Rupert E. West was a district game warden. His duties required him to patrol his territory and apprehend persons found violating the game and fish laws and to take them before some justice of the peace or other judicial officer for trial.
On 18 May 1946, he made a trip from his home in Moyock approximately 21/2 miles to the mouth of a creek, apprehended three persons fishing without license, took them before a magistrate in Moyock and procured warrants against them. The defendants pleaded guilty and were fined. Two paid their fines, but the other one was "kind of sarcastic like" and did notpay his fine until later. After he had paid, deceased "took the names down from the warrants * * * got in his car and drove off." This was about 11:30, and about 12:15 or 12:30 he died as the result of a coronary occlusion. He had suffered for some time prior thereto from angina pectoris due to diseased coronary arteries.
On the day of his death after his return trip, deceased
A medical expert testified that the exertion or "excitement" of the arrest, the trial and the other incidents of the morning, "including the running of the boat up the creek * * * could easily have caused the coronary occlusion and the resulting death."
One witness testified that the deceased, after the trial, "had a terribly worried expression" and said to her: "I have had a time all the morning, up the creek with three men resisting me without a fishing license, three men who had no license, and I had to come in and get warrants for them."
The hearing commissioner found that deceased, on the day he died, was simply performing his usual duties and that "After a most careful analysis of all of the evidence, the Commission can find no unusual, unforeseen or unexpected event which could be construed as an accident or injury by accident." An award was denied. The full commission affirmed. On appeal to the Superior Court, the order of the full commission denying an award was affirmed and plaintiff appealed.
John B. McMullan and John H. Hall, both of Elizabeth City, for plaintiffs appellants.
Harry M. McMullan, Atty. Gen., and T. W. Bruton, Hughes J. Rhodes, and Ralph M. Moody, Asst. Attys. Gen., for employer appellee.
The record is devoid of any evidence tending to show that the deceased died as the result of an injury by accident. Neither an accident nor an injury, as those terms are used in the Workmen's Compensation Act, G.S. § 97-1 et seq, is made to appear.
So far we have not held that mere re-sistence by one who is being taken into...
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