Department of Industrial Relations v. Henry

172 So. 2d 374, 42 Ala. App. 573, 1964 Ala. App. LEXIS 214
CourtAlabama Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 15, 1964
Docket7 Div. 767
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 172 So. 2d 374 (Department of Industrial Relations v. Henry) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Alabama Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Department of Industrial Relations v. Henry, 172 So. 2d 374, 42 Ala. App. 573, 1964 Ala. App. LEXIS 214 (Ala. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinions

PRICE, Presiding Judge.

In this unemployment compensation case benefits were denied the claimant by the claims examiner, the appeals referee and the board of appeals. On appeal to the Circuit Court of Clay County benefits were allowed. This is an appeal by the Director of Industrial Relations from the judgment awarding benefits.

The record shows that Robert O. Henry had worked for the Alabama Novelty House in Birmingham off and on for thirty years. The last time he worked for the company, doing the same kind of work as when he left, was about four years. He was collecting from house to house, selling and delivering merchandise sold by the store. His work required him to be outside and exposed to the weather. Some fifteen or eighteen years before the trial of this case he was collecting for the company. It had been cold and raining for a week. He had a regular route and he was required to carry heavy samples of merchandise weighing up to fifty pounds, to climb the stairs, make long walks from his car across yards, etc., which would expose him to the weather, and caught the “flu.” He continued to work for the company, in the same type of work, during which time his physical condition grew worse. At the time he had the “flu” he did not notify the company the work was aggravating his condition, but he notified the company of his condition about a year before he quit. The company representative said they wanted him to work on as they did not have anyone to take his place, because of the nature of the work.

During the time claimant worked for the company, he acquired experience sufficient to do work other than the job he was doing. The company had stores all over the State and at one time he was manager of a company store at Jasper. His wife ran the store and he worked outside, except for one day each week when he worked in the store.

By agreement the following doctor’s certificates were introduced in evidence:

“H. S. Watkins, M.D.
Oakman, Alabama
April 24, 1963
To Whom It May Concern:
I have treated Mr. R. O. Henry since 1950 for pulmonary emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis, and bronchial asthma. This condition has grown progressively more severe, and at this time he is totally unable to do any kind of profitable manual labor.
“H. S. Watkins, M.D.”
% * ‡ s|i % #
“Thomas C. Donald, Jr. M.D.
Warren G. Sarrell, M.D.
“Claude M. Holland, Jr., M.D.
Robert H. Lokey, M.D.
Practice Limited to Internal Medicine
To Whom It May Concern:
April 19, 1963
Re: R. O. Henry
Birthdate: 9/29/1898
Route #1
Delta, Alabama
This is to certify that I am a physician, licensed to practice medicine in the state of Alabama. The above named patient has been under my medical care since August 18, 1958. He has pulmonary emphysema, pulmonary fibrosis and chronic asthmatic bronchitis.
This patient at times has severe limitation of his activities due to the above disease state. He requires constant medication. I have advised that he restrict his activities and avoid doing any type of work other than that of a sedentary nature.
[575]*575“Thomas C. Donald, Jr., M.D.”

Claimant testified pulmonary emphysema is “your lungs are kinda like honeycomb and these little cells they bust, and when they do that that part of your lungs is dead, it doesn’t function any more.” Any kind of exertion like climbing steps or walking up a hill or anything like that affects him. His Pulmonary Emphysema continually gets worse.

Section 214 subd. B, of Title 26, Code 1940, provides:

“An individual shall be disqualified for total or partial unemployment:
* * * * * 4=
“B. If he has left his employment voluntarily without good cause connected with such work; * *

In Henderson v. Department of Industrial Relations, 252 Ala. 239, 40 So.2d 629, the court said:

“111 health or physical infirmity is, of course, good cause for employees to cease working. But unless the illness or physical infirmity is shown to have resulted from or to have been caused by the employment, the employee is disqualified from receiving benefits when he voluntarily leaves his employment on account of such illness or physical infirmity. In other words, the cause for quitting may have been a good one, but the cause must have been connected with the work.”

In the Henderson case benefits were denied because the evidence failed to show that claimant’s physical disability resulted from his work or that his work increased his disability or made it more serious.

In Bussmann Mfg. Co. v. Industrial Commission of Missouri, Mo.App., 327 S.W.2d 487, the court held that in order to prevent disqualification under the applicable statute, “it is not necessary for the claimant to sustain the burden of showing that her nervousness was caused solely and only by the work she was doing. Work causing an aggravation of an existing condition, or work that was a contributing factor to the illness is also encompassed within the meaning of the clause ‘attributable to his work or to his employer,’ the only requirement being that there exist a causal connection between the work and the aggravation of, or contribution to, the disability. In short, even if we assume appellant is correct in its contention that the cause of respondent Abbott’s nervousness was her menopausal difficulties, if the evidence would support a finding of aggravation of her nervous condition by her work, or that such work contributed to her nervous condition, then respondent would not be disqualified,” under their statute.

The court further pointed out that the Missouri statute provided that in determining whether the claimant was disqualified for failure to apply for available suitable work it was proper to consider the degree of risk involved to his health, safety and physical fitness, citing and quoting from Fannon v. Federal Cartridge Corp., 219 Minn. 306, 18 N.W.2d 249, 252, 158 A.L.R. 389, as follows:

“Under this section, a claimant cannot be disqualified for refusing to accept employment which may be a risk to or endanger his health. If this be true, then certainly it is unreasonable to hold that a claimant must lose credits or be denied benefits where he has been compelled to terminate employment because such employment has resulted in a physical condition or disease likewise dangerous to health and personal safety.”

In Department of Industrial Relations v. Chapman, 37 Ala.App.

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Related

Polk v. State, Department of Industrial Relations
398 So. 2d 722 (Court of Civil Appeals of Alabama, 1981)
Shontz v. Iowa Employment Security Commission
248 N.W.2d 88 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1976)
Department of Industrial Relations v. Henry
172 So. 2d 378 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1965)

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Bluebook (online)
172 So. 2d 374, 42 Ala. App. 573, 1964 Ala. App. LEXIS 214, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/department-of-industrial-relations-v-henry-alactapp-1964.