Sanchez v. Board of County Commissioners

313 P.2d 1055, 63 N.M. 85
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedJune 20, 1957
Docket6166
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 313 P.2d 1055 (Sanchez v. Board of County Commissioners) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sanchez v. Board of County Commissioners, 313 P.2d 1055, 63 N.M. 85 (N.M. 1957).

Opinion

SADLER, Justice.

The basic question for our determination on this appeal is whether there is substantial evidence to support the jury’s verdict that the husband of plaintiff (appellee) suffered an accidental death arising out of and in the course of his employment by defendant-employer. The latter as an appellant before this Court challenges as erroneous the judgment entered on the verdict so returned at the trial.

The decedent, a man of goodly size, weighing more than 200 pounds, reported for work on a new job as a day laborer, at the commodity warehouse of his employer, the Board of County Commissioners of Bernalillo County, on the morning of July 18, 19SS. The work in hand was. the unloading from a railway box car on a siding opposite the warehouse of boxes of packaged cartons of powdered milk and stacking them inside the warehouse.

Each case of the powdered milk weighed 59ji pounds and the process of removing them from the box car, separated by several feet from the open door of the warehouse, required the services of a work crew of, at least, four men. Two of them, operating from inside the box car, would place the boxes on a tilted conveyor on which the boxes would slide toward the open door of the warehouse. As each box arrived opposite the door, the two workmen waiting inside the warehouse would stoop, over, each pick up a box and carry it a short distance away where the boxes were deposited in stacks to await use. Both in receiving and depositing the cases, some stooping or bending was required, the distance required in the process progressively decreasing as the size of a stack grew with the adding of boxes.

The decedent, along with his fellow workmen, began the job of picking up, each man to a box, and carrying them a short distance, where the cases were stacked inside the warehouse. Decedent had thus moved three or four boxes when, attempting to pick up still another, he was ■seen by the foreman to falter and fall over •on his side. Some of his fellow workmen, including the foreman, gathered around and offered help. At first, the decedent complained of being sick, thought he had eaten something that had disagreed with him, was pale and sweating, and called for a drink of water which one of his co-laborers brought him.

He was soon removed to a pile of sacks where he lay down for a time and then was carried to his car, parked nearby, in which he rested the greater part of the morning. After being conducted to his car, upon visits to him by some of the employees, he was found to be vomiting, continued pale and was still sweating. About 11:30 a. m., a fellow workman drove him home in decedent’s car. En route he complained of a pain in his head and chest and continued to sweat and remained pale. He entered his home with his eyes closed, moaning. After getting him in his home, he commenced to turn blue, whereupon his wife had him removed to the hospital. Upon arrival there he was found to be dead.

The decedent was twice married, being the father of 11 children by his first wife from whom he was divorced in 1942. The surviving wife, plaintiff herein, and the four minor children by her, were found to be dependents of decedent and the beneficiaries of whatever compensation should be adjudged due them by reason of his death.

During his lifetime the decedent was employed as a day laborer by various employers. Much of the time he was unemployed. In 1949, he got a job as a janitor for St.Joseph’s Hospital in Albuquerque, where he worked for about a year, then quit. Next, we find him employed on a road gang by county highway department. This was in 1951. He continued in this employment until February, 1954, when he was laid off.

Remaining idle for a few months, he next shows up with a job with City of Albuquerque as special patrolman at a school crossing for $110 per month. School out, he worked as a gardener in the city parks, again drarving $110 per month. Upon the reopening of school in the fall of 1954, he resumed his employment as special patrolman at a school crossing. This job occupied him until school was- out in spring of 1955, at which he continued to draw as salary the sum of $110 per month. He remained out of work from time school was out in spring of 1955 until he secured the job in which he met his death, soon after entering upon his duties on the morning of July 18, 1955.

Apparently, the decedent who had lived the outdoor life of a rancher prior to moving to Albuquerque in 1949, had enjoyed good health until August of the year, 1952, when he began to complain of headaches and dizziness. At this time his wife was employed at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and being personally acquainted with several doctors, she made appointments for him with several of them, at least, two of whom thought he had some heart trouble. The wife, plaintiff herein, being somewhat concerned, possibly by reason of knowledge acquired during her employment at a hospital, made an appointment with a fourth physician, a heart specialist, for September 21, 1952.

This physician, Dr. John Dettweiler, testified at the trial that on his first examination of decedent he discovered he had suffered from a myocardial infarction. The effect of such attacks, so Dr. Dettweiler testified, is permanent, and that patients who had had such attacks, ordinarily, are kept from doing any work involving manual labor. It thus was established by the testimony of the heart specialist that at the time of his fatal attack, the decedent was a sufferer from a pre-existing heart ailment which had continued for approximately -three years prior thereto, if not longer.

With a background in the facts as recited above, we are brought face to face with the critical issue whether the facts surrounding the death of decedent afford a basis for the jury’s verdict. In other words, is there substantial support in the evidence for the jury’s finding that the death of decedent resulted from an accidental injury suffered in the course of his employment and arising out of it?

It cannot be questioned but that there is ample evidence in the record the decedent, at time he commenced work for his. employer, to be stricken within the first hour, if not half hour, of such employment, suffered from a pre-existing heart ailment. Dr. Dettweiler, the heart specialist, who had examined him in September, 1952, and discovered he was then suffering from a prior heart ailment, was. asked a hypothetical question describing the facts surrounding decedent’s attack, —the lifting in progressive sequence of three or four boxes weighing around 50' pounds (actually shown to be 59}/£ pounds),, a physical collapse followed by a fainting condition, sweating, vomiting, and ending in death the same day, — gave it as his-unqualified opinion that it was “most likely” the exertion of lifting the boxes, precipitated the heart attack from which, death occurred.

Likewise, Dr. Levin, an expert medical witness, upon facts in evidence embraced, in a hypothetical question, gave it as his. opinion that decedent had suffered a coronary occlusion (a heart attack) on the day of his death and that exertion from lifting the boxes was the inducing cause of" the attack which resulted in his death.. The jury, following instructions from the-court touching the issue, returned into-court a general verdict and special verdicts, in answer to interrogatories submitted, as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
313 P.2d 1055, 63 N.M. 85, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sanchez-v-board-of-county-commissioners-nm-1957.