McGrath v. Railway Express Agency, Inc.

411 S.W.2d 260, 1967 Mo. App. LEXIS 797
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 17, 1967
DocketNo. 32255
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 411 S.W.2d 260 (McGrath v. Railway Express Agency, Inc.) 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
McGrath v. Railway Express Agency, Inc., 411 S.W.2d 260, 1967 Mo. App. LEXIS 797 (Mo. Ct. App. 1967).

Opinion

DOERNER, Commissioner.

This claim for compensation under our Workmen’s Compensation Law was filed by Florence E. McGrath, the widow of Thomas B. McGrath, a former employee of Railway Express Agency, Inc. in St. Louis. On April 5, 1962, towards the end of his work day, McGrath, a chauffeur, was discovered lying alongside the truck he had operated, which had been backed up to his employer’s loading dock. He died early the next morning from a subdural hemorrhage, subsequent to a fractured skull, according to an autopsy performed by the Coroner’s physician. The claimant alleged in her claim that the employee had slipped while climbing from the truck to the employer’s loading dock. This was denied by the employer and its insurer, and the actual and sole issue in dispute was whether the injury arose out of and in the course of the employment. The referee found in favor of claimant, but upon appeal by the employer and insurer the Industrial Commission entered a final award in which it found that the employee died from conditions secondary to an idiopathic fall, that the evidence failed to show any hazard or special risk from such a fall peculiar to the employment, and denied compensation, citing Howard v. Ford Motor Co., Mo.App., 363 S.W.2d 61. The claimant then appealed to the Circuit Court, which affirmed the award, and has now sought our review.

The parties are in accord as to the applicable law. Claimant asserts, and the employer and insurer concede, that when, as here, an employee is found injured at a place where his duty required him to be a rebuttable presumption arises that he was injured in the course of and in consequence of his employment. Toole v. Bechtel Corp., Mo., 2A S.W.2d 874; Duff v. St. Louis Mining & Milling Corp., 363 Mo. 944, 255 S.W.2d 792; Mershon v. [262]*262Missouri Public Service Corp., 359 Mo. 257, 221 S.W.2d 165. For their part, the employer and insurer maintain, and claimant agrees, that such presumption, being merely procedural, disappears when the employer produces substantial rebutting evidence on the issue of how the injury occurred, and that thereafter the issue must be determined solely on the evidence as though no presumption had ever existed. Kelley v. Sohio Chemical Co., Mo., 392 S.W.2d 255; Toole v. Bechtel Corp., supra; Duff v. St. Louis Mining & Milling Corp., supra. Where they differ is in their view of the evidence. Claimant argues that the employer and insurer did not produce substantial credible evidence of how the injury occurred, while the employer and insurer contend to the contrary. Thus the controversy between the parties really devolves into the questions of whether there was competent and substantial evidence to support, the finding of the Commission, in effect, that the deceased did not die from an injury which arose “out of” his employment, and whether that finding is contrary to the overwhelming weight of the evidence. Section 536.140, RSMo 1959, V.A.M.S.; Corp v. Joplin Cement Co., Mo., 337 S.W.2d 252; Brown v. Anthony Manufacturing Co., Mo., 311 S. W.2d 23. It is appropriate to stress that in determining those questions we must view the evidence, including all legitimate inferences to be drawn therefrom, in the light most favorable to the award made by the Industrial Commission; Snowbarger v. M. F. A. Central Co-op., Mo., 349 S.W.2d 224; and that we may not substitute our judgment on the evidence for that of the Commission. Merriman v. Ben Gutman Truck Service, Inc., Mo., 392 S.W.2d 292; Snowbarger v. M. F. A. Central Co-op., supra; Marie v. Standard Steel Works, Mo., 319 S.W.2d 871.

At the time of his death, on April 6, 1962, McGrath was 59 years of age and had been continuously working for the employer for a period of 26 years. He had been treated for emphysema by Dr. Joseph Vacca, his own physician, for several years prior to his death, and by at least 5 different doctors during the 6 years preceding that event. In 1960 he was off work 24 days and in the hospital 5 days because of emphysema and bronchitis; in 1958 he was off work for the same condition for a period of 17 days; and in 1956 he was off work for a, period of 3 months and 5 days because of emphysema and arthritis. As a chauffeur for the employer his duties were to deliver packages and parcels to the addresses to whom they had been sent, and to pick-up similar freight from those who desired to send it to others. For that purpose he drove a Dodge delivery van, and his work day was from 9:30 A.M. to 6:00 P.M. Pick-ups made during the day were normally unloaded by him at the employer’s loading dock, which had doors numbered 1 through 27, all of which were double doors. Billed freight was unloaded at certain doors and unbilled .freight at others.

Neither party produced an eye-witness to the occurrence. Claimant called as her witness J. S. Shaffer, the employer’s supervisor of vehicle service and the deceased ■ employee’s immediate supervisor, who testified that at about 5:05 P.M. he talked to McGrath at Door 1. At that time Mc-Grath’s truck was partially loaded with his pick-ups for the day, and was backed up to Door 1, where he had taken something off. Shaffer related that in the course-of making a routine inspection he then talked to other drivers, and McGrath pulled his truck out. About 3 to 5 minutes later another chauffeur, Pete Bowe, came up and said that McGrath had flipped out on the street. He went to Door 8, where McGrath’s truck was backed up to the loading dock, and saw McGrath lying on the pavement. He was about 15 or 20 inches from the left or driver’s side of the van, with his feet approximately 4 to 4½ feet from the dock, or a little farther, and his head almost even with the door of the truck. The door was closed, the motor was off, and the brakes were set. It was developed that some drivers got out on the left side of their trucks, others on the right and that normally, aft[263]*263er parking, it would have been McGrath’s duty to go up on the loading platform, which was about 40 inches above the pavement, to unload his truck. Steps from the pavement to the loading platform were located between doors 9 and 10, and at other doors the drivers usually ascended from the pavement by stepping onto a step on the truck, about 18 or 20 inches high, and then stepping onto the loading dock.

Shaffer stated that about a minute or so after he reached McGrath he asked him to which hospital he desired to be taken, City Hospital or Incarnate Ward. Mc-Grath was then conscious and rational, recognized him, and replied that he wanted to be taken to the City Hospital. An ambulance had been called and shortly arrived, as did Officer John Jones, of the St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department, in a patrol car. Shaffer and Jones rode in the ambulance with McGrath to City Hospital No. 1. On cross-examination Shaffer testified that on the way to the hospital McGrath was conscious and rational and that:

“A * * * I asked Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
411 S.W.2d 260, 1967 Mo. App. LEXIS 797, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcgrath-v-railway-express-agency-inc-moctapp-1967.