Lewis v. TRACKSIDE GASOLINE STATION

103 So. 2d 868, 233 Miss. 663, 1958 Miss. LEXIS 429
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedJune 9, 1958
Docket40830
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 103 So. 2d 868 (Lewis v. TRACKSIDE GASOLINE STATION) 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
Lewis v. TRACKSIDE GASOLINE STATION, 103 So. 2d 868, 233 Miss. 663, 1958 Miss. LEXIS 429 (Mich. 1958).

Opinions

[665]*665Arrington, J.

Mrs. Hattie Lewis, widow, and two minor children of Joe D. Lewis, filed claim for benefits under the Mississippi Workmen’s Compensation Law against the Track-side Gasoline Station and Pacific Indemnity Company, its carrier. Prom a judgment of the Circuit Court of Forrest County affirming the order of the Commission in denying compensation, the claimants appeal.

The evidence in this case shows that on April 1, 1956, Easter Sunday, the deceased, Joe D. Lewis, age 52, was working for the Trackside Gasoline Station; that he reported for work that morning sometimes between seven and eight o’clock; that his duties were those of a filling-station attendant, servicing cars with oil, gasoline, checking batteries, radiators, etc. It was shown that this station did no maintenance service to cars, such as fixing-tires, etc. The evidence shows by all the witnesses that this station was located on Highway 11, and did a good business, regularly selling over 25,000 gallons of gasoline per month; that on this Easter Sunday morning many of the other stations in town were closed, and this resulted in an increase of business to this station. B. C. Lewis, Sr., was manager of the station, and according to his testimony, he left the station at approximately 9:40 A.M. to attend Sunday School and Church, and he returned at 11:20 A.M. He left Joe Lewis, the deceased to attend the station. It was also shown that this station had six gas pumps and one diesel pump, and in addition, cigarettes and cold drinks were sold.

One W. P. Nicholas, Jr., a member of the Police Department of the City of Hattiesburg, testified that he [666]*666and his brother appeared at the station sometime between 10 and 11 o’clock in the morning and observed Lewis putting gasoline in an automobile and that several cars were at the station at that time; that Lewis was doing all the servicing by himself; that in a few minutes Lewis approached him and asked him if he and his brother would wait on the cars for awhile, because he was sick; that he and his brother did and they were kept busy; that he went into the office to see about Lewis and found him with his head and arms leaning on the desk; that later two large trucks came in the station, and after servicing them, he again went to see about Lewis, and at that time found him lying on the floor on his back, and Lewis asked him to take him to the hospital. This the witness did, leaving the station in charge of his brother. Lewis was in intense pain and he could not talk, and was unconscious upon arrival at the hospital. Lewis remained in the hospital until his death on April 21, 1956.

A former manager of the station for three years testified to the arrangement of the station and its large business, and that it required more than one man to handle the business, and it was generally admitted by all the witnesses that this was a busy station on weekends.

Dr. B. E. Schwartz, a heart specialist, testified that he had treated the deceased since January 1, 1945; that he suspected coronary trouble at that time; that he treated him in 1949, and that he came for a check-up in March 1952; that he found he was suffering with coronary insufficiency ; that he examined him twice in 1953 and again in September 1955; that at this time he had bursitis and Ms heart showed improvement; that he treated him for bursitis monthly and Lewis received his last treatment on March 30, two days before his fatal heart attack; that at that time he was given a shot for bursitis. Dr. Schwartz testified at length and stated that he had advised the deceased not to do anything that would create any exertion to any extent, but that he was a man that wouldn’t [667]*667follow advice; that he felt he had to work and “wasn’t as sick as I made ont he was. ’ ’ The following questions and answers appear in the record:

“Q. Doctor, it is in testimony that on April 1, 1956, Easter morning, the deceased, Mr. Joe D. Lewis, was working at the Trackside Service Station in Hattiesburg on Highway 11 on Broadway Drive and that he was, on that morning, between ten thirty and eleven, undertaking to service a number of automobiles and trucks alone, without any help, at that time. I’ll ask you, as a heart specialist, doctor, whether or not that type work by that man in his then known condition would not have likely produced stress and strain?
“A. It will produce stress and strain, yes.
“Q. Would you then state to the court, doctor, as a heart expert, that a man doing the type work I have just demonstrated, raising the hood of a car, then filling the car with gas, then washing the windshield and going to another car, in the normal conduction of a filling station as you knew it, and while doing that work suffered this heart attack, would you tell the court you would expect that type exertion to bring about the attack?
“A. I’d like to qualify that.
‘ ‘ Q. Would it aggravate it ?
“A. It could or it could not. We have any number of patients like that that could go along and do that work and not have any ill effects from it. We have a certain type of a nervous temperament and they could do it ninety-nine times and then the hundredth time have an attack. We feel it could bring it on.
“Q. Doing that type work, with a patient with that type heart trouble, would you expect that type work to produce that?
“A. Any severe muscle exertion would aggravate it and could produce it.
“Q. Could aggravate it and could cause it, couldn’t it?
[668]*668“A. Could aggravate it and cause it.

Mrs. Hattie Lewis, widow of the deceased, testified that she went to the hospital to see her husband and asked him what happened, and he said: “I got too hot and overworked and exhausted, and this spell came over me. It was the second one I had that morning, and the first one I had to lay down and the second one, I fell down that morning.” He further said: “If I live over this, I won’t be able to do that any more; I have enough for the Trackside Gasoline Company to tell them I won’t ever be able to do that work any more by myself. ’ ’

Dr. F. E. Tatum testified in behalf of the appellees, and it was admitted that he was a heart specialist. Dr. Tatum testified that he had seen the deceased on two instances in his office around February or March 1955; that he had also talked to Dr. Schwartz about the deceased; that he had examined an electrocardiagram of the deceased at the Forrest County General Hospital several days before his death; that his diagnosis was acute myocardial infarction, which is a state of the heart muscles due to coronary thrombosis. Upon answer to a question of the appellee’s attorney with reference to his duties at the station, he testified that he did not think that that degree of activity would play a definite part and he further testified that activity might under certain circumstances where the exertion was severe or strenuous, and in the absence of showing a type of strenuous exertion, he would not be inclined to say that his work had anything to do with his illness. Dr. Tatum further testified that the work at the station could have aggravated his heart condition and that it might be aggravated by any kind of physical exertion and that over-exertion could certainly aggravate it. Upon recross-examination, the doctor testified as follows:

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Lewis v. TRACKSIDE GASOLINE STATION
103 So. 2d 868 (Mississippi Supreme Court, 1958)

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Bluebook (online)
103 So. 2d 868, 233 Miss. 663, 1958 Miss. LEXIS 429, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lewis-v-trackside-gasoline-station-miss-1958.