Sutton v. Brown's Tie & Lumber Company

350 P.2d 345, 82 Idaho 135, 1960 Ida. LEXIS 193
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1960
Docket8825
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 350 P.2d 345 (Sutton v. Brown's Tie & Lumber Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Sutton v. Brown's Tie & Lumber Company, 350 P.2d 345, 82 Idaho 135, 1960 Ida. LEXIS 193 (Idaho 1960).

Opinion

*137 McQUADE, Justice.

This is a proceeding for workmen’s compensation death benefits in the death of Arthur R. Sutton, 31, an employee of defendant Brown’s Tie & Lumber Company at its mill at McCall, Idaho.

Until he went to work for defendant corporation a week before his death, Sutton’s employment had been mainly of a clerical and sedentary nature. He worked for Potlatch Lumber Company during the summer of 1951; his duties there are unknown. From 1952 until April 20, 1956, he was an insurance claims adjuster in California. During that period his duties required physical exertion for routine travel, walking and driving about, and interviewing.

He was next employed by Consolidated Mining and Smelting Company of Kinnard, B. C., in a clerical capacity. This employ-, ment continued until about June. 3, 1958, which was the date Sutton moved his family to McCall and went to work for defendant Brown’s Tie & Lumber Company.

At defendant employer’s mill, he was assigned to work on the “dry chain.” The dry chain is a conveyor, raised three and a half feet above the platform where employees move about while working; it carries smooth boards from a planer. These boards measured 8 inches wide by 1 inch thick, and from 6 to 16 feet long, and weighed from 6.4 pounds to 18.11 pounds. Sutton’s job was to pull boards off the conveyor onto “bunks,” sorting them by grade of lumber as he did so; boards were picked up from the bunks by carriers. Both parties describe the dry chain job as being light work, and the only work in the mill to which Federal law permits 16-year-olds to be assigned.

Sutton worked nine-hour shifts on the dry chain from Tuesday, June 3, through Friday, June 6. He worked five hours Saturday, June 7, and was off work Sunday, June 8.

On one or two occasions he complained of shortness of breath. He attributed this to the high altitude of McCall (approximately 5,000 feet).

*138 On June 9, Sutton arose between 9 and 10 a m. He had breakfast, then went downtown shopping. About 2 p. m., the family had lunch, the large meal of the day.

Sutton went to work at 4 p. m. He performed his regular duties on the dry chain. He did not suffer any fall, nor did he slip nor do any sudden lifting. There was no speed-up in the work. He did not complain of being ill.

About 11 p. m., Sutton pulled on a board, then suddenly collapsed, falling against the dry chain and then to the floor. He made no outcry. A sudden tremor was noted. He gasped for air, and his eyes became glassy. He was taken to the McCall Hospital, where he was pronounced dead at 12:30 a. m. June 10. However, appellant and respondent indicate death actually occurred immediately after the attack.

An autopsy showed moderate sclerosis of the right coronary artery of the heart, and extreme arteriosclerosis of the left coronary artery. The autopsy report said the lateral descending branch-

“ * * * is the site at its point of origin of extreme sclerosis, and here only a pin-point lumen is present. A small amount of what appears to be fresh thrombus occludes the lumen at this point. The descending left coronary ' artery, while still the site of arteriosclerosis and narrowing shows no further clotting' of blood in its lumen. The myocardium of the left lateral ventricle shows myofibrosis. Also present here are areas of hemorrhage. * * * ”

Mrs. Sutton, the decedent’s widow, brought this claim for death benefits on behalf of herself and two minor children, on the theory this was a death from industrial accident as defined in the Idaho statutes. The Industrial Accident Board, after hearing the evidence, entered an order granting benefits, from which order this appeal is taken.

Appellants set forth eight specifications of error. These, in brief, state the Industrial Accident Board erred in ruling ordinary work, as the causative factor of an injury, is an accident, there being no unusual exertion or physical or emotional strain connected with the job. Appellants further assert this was not an injury caused by accident arising out of and in the course of employment.

For an injury to be compensable, it must come within the following statutory definition:

“If a workman receives personal injury caused by an accident arising out of and in the course of any employment covered by the Workmen’s Compensation Law his employer or the surety shall pay compensation in the amounts and to the person or persons hereinafter specified.
*139 “ ‘Accident,’ as used in this law, means an unexpected, undesigned, and unlooked for mishap, or untoward event, happening suddenly and connected with, the industry in which it occurs, and which can be definitely located as to time when and place where it occurred, causing an injury, as defined in this law.
“The terms ‘injury’ and ‘personal injury,’ as the same are used in this law, shall be construed to include only an injury caused by an accident, as above defined, which results in violence to the physical structure of the body. * * *” I.C. § 72-201. (Emphasis added.)

The parties agree as to the facts surrounding the death of the decedent, but they disagree diametrically as to the interpretation of those facts. A hypothetical question posed to four doctors, as expert witnesses, tracing the decedent’s work record, his medical history, and the circumstances of the heart attack, in effect amounted to a stipulation of facts.

Dr. Joseph Beeman, the pathologist who conducted the autopsy, testified in response to the hypothetical question, taking into consideration his own findings. He said in part:

“ * * * he was just doing too much work for a heart in this condition.
“ * * * when a heart is in this condition and he is doing manual labor, it is causing an increased strain on his heart and it precipitated the final thing that killed him. ******
“It may get to a point where the heart muscle is deprived of sufficient blood and part of the heart muscle dies.
******
“In my opinion, this man’s heart muscle had been dying for a long time and had been replaced by scar tissue over a period of years — possibly a few years — and that he had a coronary thrombosis or blood clot superimposed on his narrow vessel, possibly a few years before he died, and that this work he was doing required more oxygen to his heart, which didn’t get there because the vessels were plugged off and as a result of that the man finally died.”

This witness estimated the blood clot formed in the course of three or four hours.

Dr. Roscoe C. Ward, a general practitioner, also testified for the claimant. In regard to the heart attack in relation to the decedent’s work, he said:

“He was doing more than his heart would normally permit and any time he exceeded that limit then he in *140

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Bluebook (online)
350 P.2d 345, 82 Idaho 135, 1960 Ida. LEXIS 193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sutton-v-browns-tie-lumber-company-idaho-1960.