State ex rel. Marion Power Shovel Co. v. Industrial Commission

153 Ohio St. (N.S.) 451
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedApril 26, 1950
DocketNo. 31977
StatusPublished

This text of 153 Ohio St. (N.S.) 451 (State ex rel. Marion Power Shovel Co. v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Marion Power Shovel Co. v. Industrial Commission, 153 Ohio St. (N.S.) 451 (Ohio 1950).

Opinions

Taft, J.

Tbe portions of Section 1465-68 (a), General Code, pertinent in a consideration of tbe question involved in the instant case, read:

“Every employee who is disabled because of the contraction of an occupational disease as herein defined, or the dependent of an employee whose death is caused by an occupational disease as herein defined, shall be entitled to the compensation provided by Sections 1465-78 to 1465-82, inclusive, and Section 1465-89 of the General Code, subject to the modifications hereinafter mentioned.
‘ ‘ The following diseases shall be considered occupational diseases and compensable as such, when contracted by an employee in the course of his employment in which such employee was engaged at any time within 12 months previous to the date of his disablement and due to the nature of any process described herein.
‘‘ Schedule
“22. Silicosis, (silicosis shall mean a disease of the lungs caused by breathing silica dust [silicon dioxide] producing fibrous nodules, distributed through the lungs and demonstrated by X-ray examination or by autopsy.)
[453]*453“Nothing in this act shall entitle an employee or his dependents to compensation, medical treatment, or payment of funeral expenses for disability or death from silicosis, unless the employee has been subject to injurious exposure to silica dust (silicon dioxide)/in his employment in Ohio preceding his disablement, for periods amounting in all to at least three years, some portion of which shall have been after the effective date of this act, except as provided in the last paragraph of Section 1465-80, General Code.
“Compensation, medical, hospital and nursing expenses on account of silicosis shall be payable only in the event of temporary total disability, permanent total disability, or death, in accordance with the provisions of Sections 1465-79, 1465-81 and 1465-82 of the General Code, and only in the event of such disability or death resulting within eight years after the last injurious exposure; provided that in the event of death following continuous total disability commencing within eight years after the last injurious exposure, the requirement of death within eight years after the last injurious exposure shall not apply.
“Claims of an employee for compensation, medical, hospital and nursing expenses, on account of silicosis shall be forever barred unless application therefor shall have been made to the Industrial Commission within one year after total disability began or within such longer period as shall not exceed six months after diagnosis of silicosis by a licensed physician. Claims of dependents for benefits on account of death from silicosis shall be forever barred unless application therefor shall have been made to the Industrial Commission within six months after death.”

A reading of the foregoing statute discloses that two of the essential requirements of an allowable claim of an employee or his dependents for benefits under the [454]*454OMo Workmen’s Compensation Act for disability or death from silicosis are:

1. Injurious exposure of the employee to silica dust in employment in Ohio preceding his disablement, for periods amounting in all to at least three years.

2. The occurrence of the employee’s total disability or death within eight years after his last injurious exposure (death following continuous total disability commencing within eight years after such exposure does away with the requirement of death within eight years after such exposure).

Under the Ohio Workmen’s Compensation Act, compensation is allowed for disability or death only where there is a causal connection between something occurring during an employment covered by that act and such disability or death. See McNees v. Cincinnati Street Ry. Co., 152 Ohio St., 269, 275, 276, 89 N. E. (2d), 138, and cases cited therein.

The General Assembly has thus recognized at least three years of injurious exposure to silica dust in an Ohio employment as the something, occurring during the employment, which will justify the payment of compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act. The total disability or death is merely the result for which compensation is to be paid. The requirement, that such disability or death must occur within eight years after the last injurious exposure, is merely a condition precedent to accrual of the right to such compensation.

Once the three years of injurious exposure in an Ohio employment has taken place, nothing further in any Avay related to the employment has any significance in determining whether compensation is to be awarded. If the employee ended his employment after such exposure, he would still be entitled to compensation if it developed that his later total disability or death proximately resulted from such exposure within [455]*455the time specified in Section 1465-68 (a), General Code.

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Related

McNees v. Cincinnati Street Ry. Co.
89 N.E.2d 138 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1949)
State, Ex Rel. v. Ind. Com.
58 N.E.2d 214 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1944)
State Ex Rel. Bevis v. Coffinberry
85 N.E.2d 519 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1949)
Industrial Commission v. Kamrath
160 N.E. 470 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1928)
Fisher v. Ohio Malleable Iron Co.
188 N.E. 512 (Ohio Supreme Court, 1933)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 Ohio St. (N.S.) 451, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-marion-power-shovel-co-v-industrial-commission-ohio-1950.