Moody v. Humphrey & Harding, Inc.

238 A.2d 646, 127 Vt. 52, 1968 Vt. LEXIS 172
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedFebruary 6, 1968
Docket1907
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 238 A.2d 646 (Moody v. Humphrey & Harding, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moody v. Humphrey & Harding, Inc., 238 A.2d 646, 127 Vt. 52, 1968 Vt. LEXIS 172 (Vt. 1968).

Opinion

Keyser, J.

This is an appeal under 21 V.S.A. §672 taken by the defendants from the findings and award of the commissioner of industrial relations. In appeals direct to this court our review is limited *54 solely to questions of law certified up by the commissioner. 21 V.S.A. §672.

Two questions of law are certified to this court for determination.

(1) Did the claimant, Harvey E. Moody, Jr. sustain an injury in the course of and arising out of his employment with Humphrey & Harding, Inc.?

(2) Is the order of the Commissioner of Industrial Relations supported by the evidence?

The commissioner heard the case, made findings and issued an order based thereon. The only witness produced at the hearing was the claimant whose testimony was uncontradicted.

The defendants claim findings 7 and 8 are not supported by the evidence. The resolution of the factual issues was for the commissioner and his findings are conclusive and binding on this court in the presence, of evidentiary support. Goodwin v. Fairbanks, Morse & Co., 123 Vt. 161, 166, 184 A.2d 220; Peabody v. Jones & Lamson Machine Co., 122 Vt. 431, 433, 176 A.2d 759.

A review of the facts found by the commissioner is confined to the issue of law relating to the sufficiency of the evidence to support the factual findings. Peabody v. Jones & Lamson Machine Co., supra. And we must test the sufficiency of the facts from a point of view favorable to the award, if this can reasonably be done. Marsigli Estate v. Granite City Auto Sales, Inc., 124 Vt. 95, 99, 197 A.2d 799.

The claimant was employed by defendant Humphrey & Harding on January 3, 1967. He was a mason and had worked at his trade for four years. On the above date the claimant with two other masons was working at the medical center building at the University of Vermont laying a cement floor. Their work was screeding the cement floor which is a leveling and smoothing process of the poured cement and requires the workmen to bend over all the time. About 11 A.M. while the claimant was bent over and pulling a 2 x 4 piece of lumber used in screeding, he experienced a pulling sensation. It felt as though something was pulling his back apart as he bent over and he suffered pain. The claimant worked until 11:30 that night but had to quit because his back hurt him so much and he could hardly stand up. The *55 next day he was unable to get out of bed because of the condition of his back.

Claimant saw Doctor Prakelt on January 5 and about five or six times in all. The doctor had x-rays taken of claimant’s back at the. hospital and then prescribed a back brace. The claimant purchased it and has worn it ever since. Claimant also consulted Doctor Rust who told claimant after an examination to rest and not go back to work. The claimant began working again on April 26 or 27 although his back was no better and he still had pain in his low back. His return to work was because he needed money to pay his bills. The expenses incurred by claimant were for doctors’ bills, x-rays, back brace and medicine but no bills had been rendered to him at the time of hearing. Claimant had never before experienced trouble with his back.

By finding No. 7 the commissioner decided the first question certified affirmatively. The defendants argue that there is no evidence that the claimant was ever injured in any way. They claim the finding of an injury is inferred from claimant’s statement of pain.

Claimant’s work required a constant bending over pulling a 2 x 4 piece of lumber in order to level and smooth wet cement poured for the floor of the medical center building. It was while doing this type of work that claimant testified “I felt as if something was pulling my back apart as I bent over” and “I had to quit at eleven thirty that night because it hurt me so much. I could hardly stand up.” After this he consulted doctors, had x-rays, wore a back-brace, had medication for pain, and had to rest under the advice of his doctor.

In Giguere v. E. B. & A. C. Whiting Co., 107 Vt. 151, 164-165, 177 A. 313, 316, 98 A.L.R. 196, we held that the plaintiff suffered an injury by accident when as a result of lifting a tray or rack from the floor he felt sudden, sharp pain on his left side and found he had received a hernia.

In the Giguere case the court adopted as applicable to our act the definition given by Lord MacNaghten in Fenton v. Thorley & Co. (1903) A.C. 443 where he said: “If a man, in lifting a weight or trying to move something not easily moved, were to strain a muscle, or rick his back, or rupture himself, the mishap in ordinary parlance would be described as an accident. Anybody would say that the man had met with an accident in lifting a weight, or trying to move something too heavy for him.”

*56 The Fenton case was factually similar to the Giguere case. There the plaintiff was attempting to move a wheel when he suddenly felt “a tear in his side” and discovered he had ruptured himself.

A cerebral hemorrhage received by an employee following physical exertion was held to be an injury by accident in Laird v. State of Vermont Highway Dept., 112 Vt. 67, 85, 20 A.2d 555.

In the Laird case at page 85, 20 A.2d at page 564 the court approved the following quotation appearing in an English case: “An accident arises out of the employment when the required exertion producing the accident is too great for the man undertaking the work, whatever the degree of exertion or the condition of his health.”

It is of substantial significance that the claimant’s injury occurred during the hours that the claimant was working for his employer and on premises where he was directed to work. It is enough to say that an injury arises in the course of the employment when it occurs within the period of time when the employee was on duty at a place where the employee may reasonably be expected to be while fulfilling the duties of his employment contract. Marsigli Estate v. Granite City Auto Sales, Inc., supra, 124 Vt. at page 98, 197 A.2d 799.

We find a sufficient basis in the evidence to support .the finding that claimant sustained an injury in the course of and arising out of his employment. The claimant had made out a prima facie case for an award. If the defendants disagreed as to claimant’s injury they had the opportunity to produce evidence to dispute it if they had desired to do so.

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Bluebook (online)
238 A.2d 646, 127 Vt. 52, 1968 Vt. LEXIS 172, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moody-v-humphrey-harding-inc-vt-1968.