Reynolds v. Rolinson

8 Pa. D. & C. 8
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Beaver County
DecidedJuly 1, 1926
DocketNo. 485
StatusPublished

This text of 8 Pa. D. & C. 8 (Reynolds v. Rolinson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Beaver County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Reynolds v. Rolinson, 8 Pa. D. & C. 8 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1926).

Opinion

Reader, J.

The above entitled case comes before us on an appeal by the defendants from the decision of the Workmen’s Compensation Board awarding compensation to Elizabeth Reynolds, the claimant, and her minor children.

The husband of Elizabeth Reynolds, James Reynolds, was a coal miner, and on July 11, 1924, he secured employment in the mine of the defendant, J. Rolinson, Sr., in the County of Beaver. He went to work at about seven o’clock on the evening of that day. He was accompanied into the mine by a man [9]*9named D. R. Bashaar. Bashaar was not an employee of the defendant, but apparently, under the evidence, went into the mine with Reynolds simply to accompany him. Reynolds, according to the evidence, started to work, and after he had been in the mine for a period of possibly twenty minutes was overtaken by sickness, referred to by the witness as “a spell,” and apparently an attack in the nature of epilepsy, and, following this attack, fell down and started on his hands and knees to leave the mine. Bashaar was not able to keep up with him and missed him, and found when he had emerged from the mine that Reynolds was not outside. A search was later made and possibly about three-quarters of an hour from the time Reynolds went into the mine he was found in one of the workings of the mine lying on his face, dead.

The referee found that the death of Reynolds was caused by black damp, or carbon monoxide, in that part of the mine where he was found dead, and that his death was, therefore, due to the condition of the employer’s premises. He also found that the accident thus causing his death occurred while Reynolds was in the course of his employment. The Workmen’s Compensation Board approved the findings and conclusions of the referee and sustained his award. From this action of the board this appeal was taken.

Counsel for the defendants state three questions as being involved in the appeal, and as these questions state correctly the questions raised by the assignments of error, we consider and pass upon the case by taking up the questions as thus stated by counsel. The first question as stated by counsel is: (1) Is there competent medical evidence in the record to support the referee’s finding of fact that Reynolds’s death was due to an accident, i. e., due to exposue to black damp or carbon monoxide gas?

It is contended by the defendants that there is not sufficient evidence in the case to support the finding of the referee. In this position they rely upon the decision of the Supreme Court in the ease of Fink v. Sheldon Axle and Spring Co., 270 Pa. 476, and the other cases in which a similar rule is stated, one of the latest of which is the case of McCoy v. Jones & Laughlin Steel Co., 275 Pa. 422, decided on an appeal from this court. In the Fink case the court said: “Both the courts and the administrative authorities have, very properly, been most liberal in construing the Workmen’s Compensation Law, holding that claims thereunder need not be made out with the same exactness of proof required in suits at common law. It must be understood, however, that when, in cases of this class, expert testimony is relied on to show the connection between an alleged cause and a certain result, it is not enough for the doctors to say simply that the ailment in question might have resulted from the assigned caus'e, or that the one could have brought about the other; they must go further and testify at least that, taking into consideration all the attending data, it is their professional opinion the result in question most probably came from the cause alleged.” This rule is well established by many cases decided under the Compensation Act as well as in many cases at law tried before the enactment of the Compensation Act. We cited a large number of these cases in our opinion in the McCoy case, at No. 149, September Term, 1921. There can be no question as to the rule; the only question in the instant case is as to whether it is applicable to the facts in the case as shown by the evidence.

The only medical testimony before the referee was that of Dr. H. C. McCarter, the Coroner of Beaver County. He testified that no autopsy was held, and that he based his conclusions as to the cause of death upon the history of the case and an investigation of the facts existing in the mine at the time of the death of Reynolds. He testified that he had stated the cause of death [10]*10as carbon monoxide poisoning, epilepsy being contributory. He stated that this conclusion was based upon the evidence or statements to the effect that he was found in a part of the mine known as a black damp area, where no one could have lived any length of time. He further stated that, in his opinion, the attack referred to generally as an attack of epilepsy would not have been fatal had Reynolds not gotten into the black damp area. He further testified that his father had been the physician of Reynolds for years, and that while he, the witness, had never seen Reynolds in an epileptic fit, he' knew from his association with his father of the general condition of the man, and that, while he had frequent attacks of epilepsy, he was able to work with a fair degree of regularity.

It seems to us that the testimony of the doctor is not objectionable because of the fact that his conclusions are based wholly upon a statement of the history of the case and of the facts existing immediately at the time of the death of Reynolds. The record presents, in addition to the testimony of the doctor, considerable testimony of competent witnesses as to the experience of Reynolds during a number of years with reference to these attacks, and as to the actual condition in the mine at the time and place where Reynolds was found dead.

A witness, Fred Wolfe, testified that he had known Reynolds from the time he was five or six years old until the time of his death, and that Reynolds was aged about thirty-four years at the time of his death. He testified that he had been with Reynolds at times previous when he had had these spells or attacks. On such occasions he said he had seen him crawl away from the place he was working on his hands and knees. This witness also testified as to the condition of the mine at the time he and others recovered the body of Reynolds. He testified that one lying on his face in this part of the mine where Reynolds was found, as Reynolds was lying, might be overcome and killed by not more than a half dozen breaths of the black damp. According to the testimony of Wolfe, Reynolds was dead when he first saw him lying on his face in the mine, and the damp was so strong that Wolfe himself had to leave the place where Reynolds was for a time, as he himself was being affected by the damp.

Another witness, Samuel Bissell, testified also to having seen Reynolds when taken with these attacks, and having seen him on at least one occasion when so affected while working in a coal mine. He said the effect of it was to make him nervous and sick and that he attempted to get out of the mine by crawling on his hands and knees. He further testified that when under these spells Reynolds tried to get out into the fresh air, and that he would at times just roam around. He said that these spells would last from ten to fifteen minutes, and that he would be able, after they passed, to continue his work. This witness testified that he went into the mine with Reynolds (Bissell being one of the employees at the mine) to show him the place where he was to work, and that the body was found about three-quarters of an hour after Reynolds had gone into the mine.

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Bluebook (online)
8 Pa. D. & C. 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/reynolds-v-rolinson-pactcomplbeaver-1926.