102 Neb. 16 | Neb. | 1917
Action under the workmen’s compensation law. Defendant operates an ice manufacturing establishment in Omaha. The ice is manufactured by immersing a can containing water in a tank holding a freezing mixture. When the contents are frozen the cans are raised by the use of a lever, dipped into a tank of hot water to loosen the contents, and the ice then “pulled” or emptied. Plaintiff began work-as an “ice puller” in the summer of 1916. In the summer time the ice pulling took most of his time. When cold weather came he pulled ice part of each day and afterwards, under the directions of the foreman, did whatever work there was to do around the plant. In January, 1917, after pulling ice, he was set to cleaning the flues of one of the boilers. This was done by using a hose with' an appliance at the end. His testimony is to the effect that,
For the defense it was testified that the plaintiff had complained of rheumatism in November, when he had been off duty for eight days and had used liniment at that time. Plaintiff says this was on account of a strain of the back which he got from lifting a heavy piece of ice. A physician testified for plaintiff that exposure to heat for a number of days whereby the pores became opened and the individual sweats profusely, followed by several days of exposure to severe cold and wet, would be apt to cause sciatic rheumatism; that while arthritic rheumatism is accepted as a germ disease, this is not the ease with sciatic rheumatism, • and that its causes are obscure. That in his judgment, from the history plaintiff gave him, the sciatica was the result of the chilling and of the extremes of temperature.
Was the sickness of plaintiff an “accident!” There was no event which happened suddenly and violently which produced at the time objective symptoms of an injury. The statute provides that the terms “personal injuries” and “injury” “shall mean only violence to the physical structure of the body.” There was no violence to the physical structure. The cases in this state cited by plaintiff are clearly distinguishable. In Manning v. Pomerene, 101 Neb. 127, upon which the plaintiff places great stress, there was an actual accident. The injured man was endeavoring to move a heavy iron beam when a strain or lesion occured in his physical structure which produced objective symptoms of an injury at the time. There was actual violence to the physical structure of the body in the cases of Young v. Western Furniture & Mfg. Co., 101 Neb. 696, and Kanscheit v. Garrett Laundry Co., 101 Neb. 702, in which it was held that a sunstroke or heat stroke came within the provisions of the statute. In each of
The judgment of the district court is
Affirmed.