Dalton Barnard Hdwe. Co. v. Gates

1950 OK 63, 220 P.2d 249, 203 Okla. 268, 1950 Okla. LEXIS 505
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 14, 1950
Docket33518
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 1950 OK 63 (Dalton Barnard Hdwe. Co. v. Gates) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dalton Barnard Hdwe. Co. v. Gates, 1950 OK 63, 220 P.2d 249, 203 Okla. 268, 1950 Okla. LEXIS 505 (Okla. 1950).

Opinions

LUTTRELL, J.

On February 4, 1948, the State Industrial Commission, sitting en banc, affirmed an award for temporary total disability theretofore made by a trial commissioner, in favor of claimant, Betty Gates, against her employer, Dalton Barnard Hardware Company, and its insurance carrier. Thereupon the employer and its insurance carrier brought this original proceeding in this court to review the award.

Petitioners first contend that the evidence does not support the finding that claimant’s injury was accidental, and arose out of and occurred in the course of her employment. From the record it appears that Dalton Barnard Hardware Company is engaged in the retail hardware and furniture business in the city of Holdenville; that its store is located on two floors of the building occupied by it, and that oh the second floor of said building it had set apart a portion of the space occupied by it for the purpose of making draperies and slip covers for furniture; that on the date she was injured claimant was engaged in fitting a slip cover upon a chair which had been sent to the hardware store to have a slip cover made for it, and that while engaged in such occupation one of her employers came up and reprimanded her, as she testified, in a loud and hard voice, or, as she put it, “raged at her”; that she became frightened and fainted and fell, injuring her back; that thereafter she was sent to a hospital and was attended by a physician.

The physician who attended her testified that in his opinion her fainting spell was caused by abnormally high blood pressure; that when he first examined her in the store her blood pressure was extremely high, and that after she regained consciousness at the hospital her temperature was normal and her blood pressure much lower. He testified that he had treated her and examined her subsequent to her injury and that her blood pressure at the times he examined her was normal. He further testified that the only reason he could find for the abnormal elevation in her blood pressure at the time of her injury was excitement, because her blood pressure since then was normal, and that such abnormal elevation of blood pressure in his opinion caused her to faint and become unconscious. That the fall which she sustained injured her back and totally disabled her is not seriously questioned. Physicians who examined her testified that as a result of the fall she had a spinal injury and was totally disabled; that such disability was temporary, and that she could be cured by an operation.

Petitioners urge that where there is no evidence that the work in which she was engaged subjected the claimant to any serious strain, a stroke, which may or may not have been brought on by strain or overexertion, is not an injury suffered by accident, citing Schneider’s Workmen’s Compensation, vol. 4, p. 475; Marion Machine Foundry & Supply Co. v. Redd, 115 Okla. 30, 241 P. 175; National Biscuit Co. v. Lout, 179 Okla. 259, 65 P. 2d 497, and cases from other jurisdictions.

In Marion Machine Foundry & Supply Co. v. Redd, supra, the evidence showed that there was no causal connection between the employment of the claimant and his injury, but that, being subject to epileptic fits, he was seized [270]*270with one while working and fell in such a way that his hand was burned in a fire nearby. We held that such injury was not compensable.

In National Biscuit Co. v. Lout, supra, and in Phillips Petroleum Co. v. Eaves, 200 Okla. 21, 190 P. 2d 462, we held that an injury sustained by claimant, due to no apparent reason or cause, except that he stooped over when reaching for an object, was not within the Compensation Act.

The instant case is distinguishable from these cases in that the cause of the sudden rise of claimant’s blood pressure, as testified to by her and her physician, was excitement brought about by the verbal assault which she testified was made upon her by her employer, which caused her to temporarily lose consciousness and fall, resulting in the injury to her back. There is no testimony in the record that she had theretofore suffered from high blood pressure, and the testimony was that thereafter she did not.

In Pawnee Ice Cream Co. v. Price, 164 Okla. 120, 23 P. 2d 168, we held that one injured as the result of an unwarranted physical assault upon him by a fellow employee while engaged in his employment, and who sustained an injury as the result thereof, was injured in the course of his employment within the meaning of the Compensation Act.

In Northwestern Refining Co. v. State Industrial Commission, 145 Okla. 72, 291 P. 533, we held that a person who, while engaged in his work, became frightened by an explosion nearby and jumped from the ladder upon which he was working, sustaining an injury as a result thereof, was within the Compensation Act, although the evidence showed that at the time of his injury he was suffering from an existing nervous condition which made him excitable and easily frightened. We held that the explosion was the cause of his jumping from the ladder, and that the injury sustained as the result thereof was one arising in the course of and out of his employment. This decision was cited with approval of Protho v. Nette, 173 Okla. 114, 46 P. 2d 942.

In Winona Oil Co. v. Smithson, 87 Okla. 226, 209 P. 398, we said:

“The term ‘accidental injury’ as used in the act must not be given a narrow meaning, but, according to the great weight of English and American authorities, the term is to receive a broad and liberal construction, with a view of compensating injured employees, where the injury results through some accidental means, was unexpected and undesigned, or may be the result of mere mischance or of miscalculation as to the effect of voluntary action.”

This definition of an accidental injury has been followed in numerous cases. Ward v. Beatrice Creamery Co., 104 Okla. 91, 230 P. 872; Wilson & Co. v. McGee, 163 Okla. 99, 21 P. 2d 25; Special Indemnity Fund v. McFee, 200 Okla. 288, 193 P. 2d 301.

Applying the rules announced in these decisions to the facts established in the instant case, we are of opinion that the injury sustained by claimant was an accidental injury, and that it arose out of and in the course of her employment.

Petitioners next contend that the evidence wholly fails to show that claimant at the time of her injury was engaged in a hazardous occupation, and therefore covered by the provisions of the Compensation Law, citing J. B. Herd Hardware Co. v. Kirby, 160 Okla. 2, 15 P. 2d 823; Plaza Grill v. Webster, 182 Okla. 533, 78 P. 2d 818; McClung v. Colclasure, 197 Okla. 445, 172 P. 2d 623, and Hurley v. O’Brien, 192 Okla. 490, 137 P. 2d 592.

Claimant relies principally upon Harbour-Longmire-Pace Co. v. Industrial Commission, 147 Okla. 207, 296 P. 456. Claimant also cite cases such as Beatrice Creamery Co. v. Industrial Commission, 174 Okla. 101, 49 P. 2d 1094, and Voss Brothers Dairy v. Gardner, 195 Okla. 118, 155 P. 2d 727, holding that the business of an employer may [271]*271be conducted in separate departments, some of which come within the act and others which do not.

From the evidence it appears that the manner in which the business of the employer in the instant case was conducted was markedly similar to that which was shown in Harbour-Longmire-Pace Co. v. Industrial Commission, supra. In that case the employer was operating a retail furniture store in the city of Shawnee, in which it kept goods for sale.

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Dalton Barnard Hdwe. Co. v. Gates
1950 OK 63 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1950)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1950 OK 63, 220 P.2d 249, 203 Okla. 268, 1950 Okla. LEXIS 505, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dalton-barnard-hdwe-co-v-gates-okla-1950.