Crawford v. Industrial Commission

13 Ohio Law. Abs. 185, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1379
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 4, 1932
DocketNo 1084
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 13 Ohio Law. Abs. 185 (Crawford v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crawford v. Industrial Commission, 13 Ohio Law. Abs. 185, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1379 (Ohio Ct. App. 1932).

Opinion

HORNBECK, J.

We consider the second claim first, namely, the unconstitutionality of the statute. In State ex Kauffman v The Industrial Commission of Ohio, Marshall, CJ, used this language:

“We are informed by the allegations of the pleadings certain additional evidence was in fact introduced but it is quite certain at this time (December 18, 1929) and may therefore be stated as a guidance to further cases that additional evidence may not be introduced at the trial upon appeal, but that the case must be heard in court upon the evidence adduced before the Commission.”

It is true as claimed, by counsel for plaintiff in error that the issue drawn in the case decided did not require the statement of the court just quoted nor was the constitutionality of the act challenged and it is therefore not binding as an adjudication. However, it is obvious by the language employed, namely, the purpose to give guidance to all who might be concerned in the future respecting the trial of these cases on appeal, that the court give mature consideration to the question and spoke advisedly. Its pronouncement is definite and certain and must be respected as indicating the judgment of the members of the court who concurred in the opinion on the effect of §1465-90 GC in the particular discussed. We hold the statute to be constitutional.

The facts out of which the case under consideration arose were substantially these, Albert Crawford was and had been for sometime prior to September 13, 1924 in the employ of the Cappel Furniture Company of Dayton, Ohio as a deliveryman and truck driver. On the afternoon of the above date he and a helper loaded and transported 3% truck loads of mattresses to a four story building at the Dayton University. To deliver these mattresses it was necessary to use stairways as there was no elevator service. The fourth floor was reached by means of three flights of stairs. The testimony discloses that these two men carried all of these mattresses, weighing approximately 35 lbs. each, up the stairways the method of carrying the mattresses was to put two of them on the head and then move them up the stairs to the place of delivery. The testimony discloses that they were much hurried in so doing. Notwithstanding the haste with which > they were compelled to do their work, plaintiff’s decedent was late in completing his work for the afternoon. At the time that plaintiff’s decedent left Mr. Sheath, his helper, he complained of being tired. Mr. Sheath explained he was a man who did not complain. He went home immediately, arriving there about 5:30 P. M. and complained to his wife of pains in the chest extending to his elbow. The extent to which he complained on Saturday night is not disclosed at length but it does appear at page 7 of the recross examination by Judge Graven of the Commission that plaintiff’s decedent complained to her on Saturday night. [187]*187His illness continued on Sunday and on the afternoon thereof he went to Dr. S. E. Hendron’s office. (There is some claim that he consulted the doctor on Saturday afternoon). It is testified that he was in a terrible condition when brought to the doctor’s office. The doctor prescribed for Mr. Crawford. He returned to his home and took his medicine regularly; at about 10 o’clock Sunday night he had left his bed to go to the toilet; he was there but a short time when he returned to his bed and when about to remove his bath robe fell back upon the bed uttered a choking sound and immediately died. The doctor was called and pronounced the cause of death to be acute cardiac dilatation, secondary cause, chronic myocarditis which causes were carried into the death certificate provided by the doctor.

The evidence further developed that Mr. Crawford was a man five feet four inches tall, weighed about 165 pounds, had suffered no illness prior to the Saturday after the completion of his work. He had been regularly employed for seven years with the Cappel Furniture Company in the same duties which he was performing on Saturday, September 13, 1924. The doctor testified that the symptoms of acute dilatation of the heart would be pain in the chest in the region of the heart, under the left arm pit and in extreme cases extending down and into the elbow. It thus appears that there was direct relation between the complaint of Mr. Crawford of pain in his chest, extending to his elbow and the acute dilatation of the heart of which he died. At page 14 of the record before the Commission on rehearing this question was put to Dr. Hendron and answer made.

“Q. Assume that a man died suddenly, while engaged in the line of his business, and that the cause of his death was contributed primarily to ‘Acute Dilatation’ secondary cause, ‘Myocarditis, chronic,’ just assume that previous thereto he had been engaged in carrying up mattresses up flights of stairs, two, three and four floors, carried two mattresses at a time, weighing about 60 lbs., and assume that his duties were to deliver furniture to different localities, would or would not his death be a result of an injury, sustained in the course of and arising out of his employment.
A. I think it could.”

There are certain outstanding indisputable facts in this case. The only medical testimony in the record was offered by the plaintiff. It is to the effect that Mr. Crawford was suffering from chronic myocarditis which is an affection of the muscle of the heart. It is also undisputed that the immediate cause of his death was acute heart dilatation. There would seem to be little doubt that his death resulted from a continuing cause which had its inception on Saturday afternoon when he was delivering the mattresses. There is nothing to indicate that any cause other than this could have intervened to reasonably account for his sudden death on Sunday night. Of course, the myocarditis indicated that his heart was in such a weakened condition as that a lesser strain would cause acute dilatation and death than if it had been sound.

In Adams new Workmen’s Compensation Law of Ohio, page 27, he states:

“An injury to an employe’s diseased heart or blood vessel by sudden over-exertion, or unusual strain, is an injury within the act.”

and cites in support thereof Industrial Commission v Betlyoun, 31 Oh Ap 430, (7 Abs 542), and Industrial Commission v Dunham, 33 Oh Ap 237.

Industrial Commission v Dunham was a case wherein plaintiff’s decedent had made several trips carrying heavy chairs from the second floor to the first floor of his employer’s factory and after his last trip told his fellow employee he had sneezed while carrying one of the heavy chairs and tore something loose inside. Death having been caused by the rupture of a broken blood vessel near the heart, held, caused by injury sustained in the course of employment.

In defining an injury as relates to the heart the second proposition of the syllabus of Industrial Commission v Betlyoun, supra, says:

“An injury compensable under the Workmen’s Compensation Law must be ' a physical one, accidentally sustained; hence, if a workman’s diseased heart is injured in an accident in the course of his employment, he is entitled to compensation; but a workman who has a diseased heart, which, in consequence of the nature of his employment, is gradually impaired so that he eventually becomes disabled, is not entitled to compensation.”

We believe that the facts in the instant case bring the occurrences affecting plaintiff’s decedent witliin the first part of the syllabus just quoted.

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Related

Carroll v. Indust. Comm.
31 Ohio Law. Abs. 305 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1940)
Bauer v. Industrial Commission
26 Ohio Law. Abs. 559 (Stark County Court of Common Pleas, 1938)
Industrial Commission v. Luger
6 N.E.2d 573 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1936)
Esmonde v. Lima Locomotive Works, Inc.
1 N.E.2d 633 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1935)
Industrial Commission v. Stiffler
14 Ohio Law. Abs. 710 (Ohio Court of Appeals, 1933)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
13 Ohio Law. Abs. 185, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1379, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crawford-v-industrial-commission-ohioctapp-1932.