Haynes v. Emerson Electric Co.

799 S.W.2d 939, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 1639, 1990 WL 172685
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 8, 1990
DocketNo. 16765
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 799 S.W.2d 939 (Haynes v. Emerson Electric Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haynes v. Emerson Electric Co., 799 S.W.2d 939, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 1639, 1990 WL 172685 (Mo. Ct. App. 1990).

Opinion

CROW, Judge.

Claimants Victoria Regina Haynes and Courtney Allison Haynes appeal from a final award of the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission (“the Commission”) denying compensation under The Workers’ Compensation Law, chapter 287, RSMo 1978, as amended. Claimants, the only children of Luther Charles Haynes, sought benefits for his death. Mr. Haynes, an employee of Emerson Electric Company (“Emerson”), died of a heart attack March 28, 1984, while driving an 18-wheel tractor-trailer unit for Emerson.

The Commission, by a 2-1 vote, reversed an award by an administrative law judge (“AU”) of the Division of Workers’ Compensation allowing benefits. The majority of the Commission held claimants failed to establish Mr. Haynes’ death “was the result of a job related accident.”

The scope of our review is established by § 287.495, RSMo 1986. It provides, insofar as pertinent to this appeal:

“1. ... Upon appeal ... in the absence of fraud, the findings of fact made by the commission within its powers shall be conclusive and binding. The court, on appeal, shall review only questions of law and may modify, reverse, remand for rehearing, or set aside the award upon any of the following grounds and no other:

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(4) That there was not sufficient competent evidence in the record to warrant the making of the award.

We review the Commission’s award, not that of the AU. Jordan v. D & L Custom Wood Products, 767 S.W.2d 378, 380 (Mo.App.1989); Richardson v. Falcon Products, Inc., 739 S.W.2d 596, 597[1] (Mo.App.1987); Long v. City of Hannibal, 670 S.W.2d 567, 569-70[5] (Mo.App.1984). Our duty is to determine from the record as a whole whether the Commission could reasonably have made its findings and award, reviewing the record in the light most favorable to the Commission’s findings. Johnson v. City of Duenweg Fire Dept., 735 S.W.2d 364, 366[2] (Mo. banc 1987). The Commission is the sole judge of the weight of the evidence and the credibility of the witnesses. Welborn v. Southern Equipment Co., 395 S.W.2d 119, 125-26[7] (Mo. banc 1965); Smith v. Ozark Lead Co., 741 S.W.2d 802, 812[7] (Mo.App.1987). If the competent evidence or permissible inferences are conflicting the choice rests with the Commission and is binding upon us. Davis v. Roadway Express, Inc., 764 S.W.2d 145, 152 (Mo.App.1989); Katzenberger v. Gill, 690 S.W.2d 473, 475[2] (Mo.App.1985); Springett v. St. Louis Independent Packing Co., 431 S.W.2d 698, 700[6] (Mo.App.1968).

Section 287.120.1, RSMo 1978, provides:

[941]*941“Every employer subject to the provisions of this chapter shall be liable, irrespective of negligence, to furnish compensation under the provisions of this chapter for ... death of the employee by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment....”

Section 287.020.2, RSMo Cum. Supp.1983, provides:

“The word ‘accident’ as used in this chapter shall, unless a different meaning is clearly indicated by the context, be construed to mean an unexpected or unforeseen event happening suddenly and violently, with or without human fault, and producing at the time objective symptoms of an injury.”

In Wynn v. Navajo Freight Lines, Inc., 654 S.W.2d 87 (Mo. banc 1983), the Commission awarded death benefits to the widow and unemancipated children of a truck driver who suffered a fatal heart attack while driving his usual route. On appeal the Supreme Court of Missouri stated: “The issue in this case is whether an employee’s death by work induced heart attack during the continued performance of his usual duties constitutes ground for worker’s compensation death benefits.” Id. at 87-88.

Affirming the award, the Supreme Court of Missouri noted that judicial construction of the statutory definition of “accident” had been broadened in Wolfgeher v. Wagner Cartage Service, Inc., 646 S.W.2d 781 (Mo. banc 1983). Wynn, 654 S.W.2d at 89. The opinion in Wynn quoted the following passage from Wolfgeher, 646 S.W.2d at 784:

“Where the performance of the usual and customary duties of an employee leads to physical breakdown or a change in pathology, the injury is compensable.” Wynn, 654 S.W.2d at 89.

The opinion in Wynn declared that under Wolfgeher a work related heart attack during the course of one’s employment is com-pensable even though unaccompanied by unusual or abnormal strain. Wynn, 654 S.W.2d at 89. Wynn stated:

“Even though [the employee] was in poor health, had a preexisting heart condition, did not take good care of himself, and might have succumbed to a fatal heart attack while off work, possibly caused by different sorts of stress, the right to compensation should exist if the actual triggering causes are found, on the basis of substantial evidence, to meet the ‘job related’ or ‘work related’ test of Wolfgeher.” Wynn, 654 S.W.2d at 89-90.

In Staab v. Laclede Gas Co., 691 S.W.2d 343 (Mo.App.1985), the Eastern District of this Court applied Wolfgeher and Wynn in affirming the Commission’s denial of workers’ compensation benefits to the widow of an employee who suffered a fatal heart attack on the job. The Eastern District held an employee’s death by heart attack is compensable if it is work induced and occurs during the performance of the employee’s usual duties. 691 S.W.2d at 344[1].

In the instant case Mr. Haynes, age 36, and Hiram Jennings Houston drove as a team for Emerson. Their trips originated at a terminal in Kennett and took them “coast to coast.” They usually departed Sunday afternoon and returned “late Friday or early Saturday morning.” Houston testified, “[Y]ou try to figure out hours that you can drive and keep that truck in operation twenty-four hours a day.” He explained, “[Y]ou can drive like ten hours and then you’re supposed to take an eight hour break.”

The journey during which Mr. Haynes died began Saturday evening, March 24, 1984, when he and Houston departed for Tempe, Arizona, with a cargo of motors. The motors were on pallets. There were between 26 and 30 pallets; each pallet weighed “[p]robably 2,000 pounds or more.”

The duo reached Tempe early Monday morning and unloaded approximately half the pallets, using manual pallet jacks to pull the pallets from the trailer into a warehouse. The task, according to Houston, was “fairly strenuous” and required about half an hour.

[942]*942They then drove to Phoenix, arriving in “less than an hour.” There they unloaded the remaining pallets.

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Bluebook (online)
799 S.W.2d 939, 1990 Mo. App. LEXIS 1639, 1990 WL 172685, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haynes-v-emerson-electric-co-moctapp-1990.