York v. State Workmen's Ins. Fund

• Decision Date: 29 June 1938
• Docket Number: 198-1938
• Citation: 131 Pa.Super. 496,200 A. 230
• Parties: York v. State Workmen's Insurance Fund et al., Appellants
• Court: Pennsylvania Superior Court

200 A. 230

131 Pa.Super. 496

York v. State Workmen's Insurance Fund et al., Appellants

No. 198-1938

Superior Court of Pennsylvania

June 29, 1938

Argued April 12, 1938

Appeal from judgment of C. P. Allegheny Co., Oct. T., 1936, No. 751 in case of Mrs. Edith York v. State Workmen's Insurance Fund and Miller Brothers.

Appeal by defendants from award of Workmen's Compensation Board.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Superior Court.

Appeal dismissed and judgment entered for claimant, before Moore McNaugher and Musmanno, JJ., opinion by Musmanno, J Defendants appealed.

Error assigned was final decree.

Judgment affirmed.

S. H. Torchia, with him Charles J. Margiotti, Attorney General, John T. J. Brennan and J. S. La Victoire, for appellants.

James R. Van Kirk, with him W. W. Stoner and J. M. Stoner & Sons, for appellee.

Before Keller, P. J., Cunningham, Baldrige, Stadtfeld, Parker and Rhodes, JJ.

OPINION

Baldrige, J.

The plaintiff was granted an award by the compensation authorities for the death of her husband. Their action was affirmed by the court below.

The problem that presents itself for our consideration in this appeal is whether there was legally competent evidence that the death of the deceased was of an accidental origin within the provisions of section 301, article III, of the Workmen's Compensation Act of June 2, 1915, P. L. 736 (77 PS § 411).

The uncontradicted evidence established that the deceased, 54 years of age, had been for about four years in the employ of Miller Brothers, who operated a small country coal bank where apparently but three men worked. Two dug coal and the deceased drove a horse which pulled loaded cars to the mouth of the mine where each was weighed, and he then pushed one at a time up a slight grade, over a "rickety" track, 75 to 100 feet to the tipple, where the cars were raised by a "chain block" and the coal dumped into bins. One of his fellow-employees testified that "it was a good push for one man -- a stiff push."

On July 16, 1934, the deceased went to work in his usual good health. A little before noon he had taken three cars out of the mine, each weighing from 3,000 to 3,500 pounds. No one saw what occurred on the tipple, but when the deceased's body was found, two of the cars had been dumped and the third was half empty. He was found by a fellow-worker evidently shortly after his collapse, lying beside the car that had been partially emptied, which weighed approximately 3,400 pounds.

Dr. Boggs, who was immediately summoned, testified that when he arrived a few minutes before noon the man was dead. He expressed the opinion that death was due to a "rupture or bursting of the coronary artery that feeds the heart muscle."

In cases of sudden death which involve the question whether there was sufficient competent evidence to establish an accident, those that are compensatory and those that are not compensatory are divided by a line which at times appears indistinct. The classification of this case is not free of difficulty.

We readily recognize that a presumption of an accidental death is not raised by simply showing a collapse of an employee while at his work. There must be affirmative proof of an accident: Mooney v. Yeagle et al., 107 Pa.Super. 409, 164 A. 82. It may be established, however, by circumstantial as well as direct evidence, or by a reasonable and legitimate inference based on a proven fact: Falls v. Tenn. Furn. Co. et al., 122 Pa.Super. 550, 186 A. 272. In this connection it must be borne in mind that our compensation statutes contemplate liberality not only in the admission of evidence but also in the inferences to be drawn therefrom.

It has been frequently held that death or injury resulting in the course of employment from a strain or sprain caused by unusual exertion is an accident within the meaning of the compensation laws: Rice v. Stevens Coal Co., 120 Pa.Super. 15, 181 A. 516; Witt v. Witt's Food Market et al., 122 Pa.Super. 557, 186 A. 275; Hill v. Thomas S. Gassner Co. et al., 124 Pa.Super. 217, 188 A. 382; Foster v. State College Boro. et al., 124 Pa.Super. 492, 189 A. 786; Viehdorfer v. Cherry Run Coal Mining Co. et al., 125 Pa.Super. 201, 189 A. 782.

The appellants, in support of their position that there was no proof of an accident, rely principally on McFadden v Lehigh Nav. Coal Co., 111 Pa.Super. 501, 503, 170 A. 314, where the deceased suffered a fatal cerebral hemorrhage when dragging a stick of timber, 6 feet long and 7 inches thick at the larger end (weight not given in the record) up a chute which rose at an angle of 40 degrees, by means of a steel "dog." The only physician called stated "that in his professional opinion the exertion in moving the stick was a marked contributory factor in the man's death from apoplexy which might have been caused by a thrombus, an embolus, or a hemorrhage, but that it might have occurred while he was asleep." We held, in reversing the court below, that the...