Dependent of Payton v. Armstrong Tire & Rubber Co.

165 So. 2d 336, 250 Miss. 407, 1964 Miss. LEXIS 471
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJune 8, 1964
DocketNo. 43109
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 165 So. 2d 336 (Dependent of Payton v. Armstrong Tire & Rubber Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dependent of Payton v. Armstrong Tire & Rubber Co., 165 So. 2d 336, 250 Miss. 407, 1964 Miss. LEXIS 471 (Mich. 1964).

Opinion

McElroy, J.

This is an appeal by the claimant, Mrs. Cora Lee Payton, surviving widow and sole dependent of the deceased, from an order of the Circuit Court of Adams County, Mississippi, which affirmed an order of the Mississippi Workmen’s Compensation Commission denying compensation benefits to the claimant. We are of the opinion, and so hold that the commission and [410]*410circuit court are in error, aud the claimant should he allowed compensation.

The question to be determined is whether or not there existed a causal connection or relationship between the death of the claimant’s deceased husband and his employment.

It was stipulated that the deceased, Elbert Rex Pay-ton, was employed by Armstrong Tire and Rubber' Company on June 6, 1962; his average weekly wage was $110; the sole claimant, a person claiming any rights to compensation, is the widow, Mrs. Cora Lee Payton, who is fifty-five years of age; the deceased, Elbert Rex Payton, was born April 10, 1902, and was, at the time of his death, sixty years of age, approximately five feet eight inches in height, and weighed approximately two hundred eighteen pounds; Payton complained of physical illness on the plant of the company on June 6, 1962; he was taken by ambulance to the Jeff Davis Hospital, leaving the plant at 1:55 p.m.; he expired in the hospital on June 7, 1962, at about 12:55 a.m.

The testimony of Woodrow Smith and Lucius Earl, co-workers with Payton on June 6, 1962 in the Pinal Finish Department Number Two, was that Payton was required to lift both automobile tires, weighing ten to thirty pounds each, and truck tires, weighing fifty to one hundred ten pounds each, from a conveyer where Payton buffed, re-touched and retrimmed the tires; during the three and a half hours of the morning before lunch Payton lifted about one hundred automobile tires and rolled several truck tires from the conveyor to his work table; June 6, 1962 was the first day Payton worked in Pinal Finish Department Number Two; Payton ate lunch between 11:30 a.m. and 12:00 noon and returned to his job to find that about forty tires had accumulated in the department while the employees had lunch, because' the tire inspector did not have the same lunch hour; within a thirty-minute period [411]*411after lunch. Payton handled approximately twenty tires; Payton went to the restroom and returned, saying he was sick; Payton looked pale and white and sat on the conveyer, stating that if he could vomit he would feel better; Payton returned to the restroom and never returned to work; and Payton did not get hurt or say he had hurt himself that day.

Joe Malcolm Harreld, Curtis Gipson and Jim Pendergrass, co-employees and witnesses called on behalf of defendants, supported claimant’s contention that Pay-ton became ill while in the course and scope of his employment. Mr. R. F. Hurst testified he accompanied the claimant from the company’s plant to the hospital.

Several physicians testified. Dr. Allen M. Read, called as a witness on behalf of the employer, testified he saw Mr. Payton in the emergency room at the Jefferson Davis Hospital upon his arrival from the employer’s plant. He found claimant to he in a state of mild shock, suffering abdominal pain and sensation of mass in his right abdomen. His blood pressure was below normal and Dr. Read made a temporary diagnosis of an unknown abdominal disorder. Claimant was hospitalized, and after a period of approximately two and a half hours his condition became worse, and Dr. Read called in Dr. Tillman and Dr. Hicks. The three physicians suspected the claimant suffered from a disorder of the aorta. An autopsy revealed the claimant had suffered a large aneurysm of the abdominal aorta and on the right side a long, slit-like tear in the vessel representing that it had ruptured. Dr. Read stated on direct examination that in his opinion the duties of the deceased’s employment had no causal connection with the ruptured aneurysm. However, on cross-examination Dr. Read stated he agreed with a text by Dr. Charles H. Best and Norman B. Taylor where it was said that exercise has the most powerful effect on the arterial blood pressure; further that the aneurysm ruptured while [412]*412claimant was in the course and scope of his employment; and further, if he had known of the claimant’s condition prior to the rupture he would not have permitted him to do anything that called for physical exertion.

Dr. Clifford Tillman, a cardiologist called as a witness on behalf of the employer, in response to a hypothetical question testified that there existed no causal relationship between the duties of the deceased’s employment and the ruptured abdominal aneurysm. Dr. Tillman admitted on cross-examination that cardiologists have a difference of opinion relative to the effect of exertion and whether or not such contributes to aneurysms, coronary attacks or ruptured aneurysms, and further, on cross-examination he agreed with the statement found in the publication by Best and Taylor that “of all physiological conditions, exercise, if of a strenuous nature, has the most powerful effect upon the arterial blood pressure. ...”

Dr. G. Swink Hicks, a general practitioner and surgeon, called as a witness on behalf of the employer, testified that he was called into the case between seven and eight o’clock on the day Payton was admitted to the hospital. Dr. Hicks also testified that in his opinion there existed no causal connection between Payton’s duties of employment and the ruptured aneurysm. However, the record reveals Dr. Hicks readily admitted his inability to express an opinion as an expert when he stated, “I don’t claim to be an expert in blood pressure”, and further that if he had a patient who was in the process of having an aneurysm rupture he would be scared to let the man out of bed, much less perform work.

Dr. Leo J. Scanlon, Jr., a pathologist, called on behalf of claimant, performed an autopsy on the deceased, Payton, and found he suffered a rupture of the abdominal aorta with a long, slit-like tear approximately five [413]*413centimeters in length. A copy of the autopsy was made a part of the record. Dr. Scanlon further testified that Payton had an advanced stage of aortic arteriosclerosis and that the aorta ruptured prior to and shortly before his admission to the hospital, that in his opinion the aneurysm which existed in Payton could not withstand the pressure a normal aorta could.

Dr. E. L. McAmis, a general practitioner called on behalf of the claimant, testified that in his opinion the' duties of claimant’s employment increased his blood pressure enough to produce the ruptured aneurysm.

After careful consideration of the record we are of the opinion that the overwhelming weight of the evidence shows that the physical labor which the deceased performed on the day of his death aggravated his preexisting condition and contributed to the ruptured aneurysm which caused his death.

It clearly appears from the record that Payton was doing rather heavy manual labor and work for his employer on June 6, 1962, at the onset of the ruptured aneurysm which caused his death on June 7, 1962. The deceased became ill, went to the restroom, returned to the duties of his employment and was described by his co-employees as being ill and appearing pale and white. He was removed from the place of his employment and taken by ambulance to the hospital, where he died the following day.

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Related

Armstrong Tire & Rubber Co. v. Payton
186 So. 2d 217 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1966)

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Bluebook (online)
165 So. 2d 336, 250 Miss. 407, 1964 Miss. LEXIS 471, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dependent-of-payton-v-armstrong-tire-rubber-co-miss-1964.