State Ex Rel. United Transports, Inc. v. Blair

180 S.W.2d 737, 352 Mo. 1091, 1944 Mo. LEXIS 584
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 5, 1944
DocketNo. 38421.
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 180 S.W.2d 737 (State Ex Rel. United Transports, Inc. v. Blair) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. United Transports, Inc. v. Blair, 180 S.W.2d 737, 352 Mo. 1091, 1944 Mo. LEXIS 584 (Mo. 1944).

Opinion

*1093 TIPTON, J.

This is a certiorari to review the opinion of respondents in the ease of Neidert v. United Transports, Inc., reported in 167 S. W. (2d) 404, wherein the respondents affirmed an award of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission which held that the claimant, Neidert, received injuries as a result of an accident while an employee of relator.

The sole question before the respondents was: Did the claimant employee receive an accident, as that word is defined by the Workmen’s Compensation Act, which is found in Section 3695, R. S. Mo. 1939? Subsection (b) of that section is as follows: “(b) The word ‘accident’ as used in this chapter, shall, unless a different meaning‘is clearly indicated by the context, be construed to mean an ^unexpected or unforeseen event happening suddenly and violently, with or without human fault and producing at the time objective symptoms of an injury . . . . ”

In respondents’ opiuion, they found, “The evidence of Dr. Moody tended to show some ‘objective symptoms of an injury.’ The evidence also tended to show that the event was both sudden and violent. We therefore feel that there was substantial evidence before the commission that the event was sudden and violent and produced ‘objective symptoms’ of an injury. Was the event itself unexpected or unforeseen ? ” . ;

In answering that question, the respondents said: “So all we have to do is to determine whether the commission was justified *1094 tuider the evidence in finding that such injury came within the meaning of ‘accident,’ as defined by said Section 3695, B. S. 1939.

‘ ‘ There was evidence from which the Commission could have found that the event was unexpected or unforeseen. The claimant was changing an automobile tire and apparently was not expecting the force he was exerting on the pipe to cause any strain. There was no evidence that complainant was not hearty and well at the time. He complained of soreness immediately afterward. Complainant testified that he had changed many tires before that and did not customarily put his foot on the pipe. We think the commission was justified, under the evidence, in finding that the strain received by claimant was an accident within the meaning of Section 3695, B. S. Mo. 1939.

“In one sense, every act of an employee is intentional. It was necessary for complainant to remove the tire on the road, when said tire could no longer be used in that condition. It was to be expected that force applied in the usual manner would effect removal of the lug which held the tire on the wheel. When the usual and ordinary force would not cause such removal, complainant pulled and tugged on the pipe to loosen the lug and, in so doing, according to the evidence before the commission, received the strain, afterwards found to be a bad rupture. We think there teas sufficient evidence authorizing the commission to find that the event was both unexpected and unintentional, and, therefore, an accident within the meaning of Section 3695, B. S. 1.939.” (Italics ours.)

The relator contends respondents held that the “injury” or rupture that the claimant received was the “event” or “accident” which was “unexpected or unforeseen” and there was no finding of a mishap “in part at least external to the body itself,” and, therefore, no compensable accident was established and the respondents’ opinion conflicts with our eases of DeLille v. Holton-Seelye Co., 334 Mo. 464, 66 S. W. (2d) 834; Joyce v. Luse-Stevenson Co., 346 Mo. 58, 139 S. W. (2d) 918; and State ex rel. Hussman-Ligonier Co. et al. v. Hughes et al., 348 Mo. 319, 153 S. W. (2d) 40.

In the DeLille case, supra, the deceased employee was a carpenter, was doing his work in his usual manner, and was apparently in good health. We held that there was substantial evidence to support the award of the commission in denying the claim because there was medical testimony showing that the deceased employee died of aneurysm which was described as a sac formed upon the wall of a blood vessel due to a diseased condition of the vessel wall, and that death was a natural one resulting from this disease. The finding of the commission, therefore, was in accord with the act defining an “accident” which says, “The said terms [‘injury or personal injuries’] shall in no ease except as hereinafter provided be construed to include . . . death due to natural causes occurring while the workman is at work.”

*1095 We find no conflict between respondents’ opinion and the opinion in the DéLille case. The rupture in tbe ease at bar was not the result of a chronic condition but was caused, “When the usual or ordinary force would not cause such removal [of the lug which held |he tire], complainant pulled and tugged on the pipe to loosen the lug and, •in so doing, according to the evidence before the commission, received the strain, afterward found to be a bad rupture.” In other words, the lug which held the tire could not be removed in the usual manner, but had to be removed in the ‘ ‘ abnormal ’ ’ manner by ‘ ‘ putting his foot on the pipe” and, therefore, was an “accident” under subsection (b) of Section 3695, supra.

In the Joyce case, supra, the deceased was a plasterer -working for sometime in the basement of a new building. In doing his work in the basement, he had to stand in water, getting his feet wet. He contracted pneumonia. We held that the disease resulted from exposure in the ordinary course of the employee’s work and, therefore, was not compensable because there was no “accident.” In distinguishing that case from the case of Tindall v. Marshall’s U. S. Auto Supply Co., 348 Mo. 1189, 159 S. W. (2d) 302, l. c. 306, we said, “Cases cited by us in that case [Joyce case] indicate if Joyce had contracted disease by being suddenly drenched with cold water -we would have held the injury to be the result of a compensable accident.” As we have said before, respondents held that the claimant received a rupture by the abnormal “event” of the pulling and tugging on the pipe to loosen the lug. Therefore, there is no conflict between the opinion of respondents and the Joyce case.

The last ease relied upon by relator is State ex rel. Hussman-Ligonier Co. et al. v. Hughes et al., supra. That Avas a certiorari case to review the opinion and decision of the St. Louis Court of Appeals, Avhich had reversed the judgment of the circuit court affirming the award of the commission -which had denied compensation for the death of relator’s deceased employee. In that case, deceased had been laid off and returned to work only a day or two before the occurrence of the alleged accident and had been given a medical examination before he returned to .Avork and pronounced in good health. On the morning of the alleged accident, he walked from his home to his work, a distance of about one mile. His first duty AAas to lift and carry a five-gallon bucket of Avater, weighing about forty-five pounds, a distance of about sixty feet. When he lifted this weight, he felt a sharp pain in his chest and AAas taken home. He died some months later.

. In ruling the case, Ave said, “The facts in the DeLille case, supra, are very similar to those in the instant case.

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Bluebook (online)
180 S.W.2d 737, 352 Mo. 1091, 1944 Mo. LEXIS 584, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-united-transports-inc-v-blair-mo-1944.