20 A.2d 901 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1941
Argued April 25, 1941.
The question that presents itself in this workmen's compensation case is whether the claimant successfully carried the burden of showing by legally competent evidence that her husband met his death as a result of an accident, while in the course of his employment, within section 301, Article III, of the Workmen's Compensation Act, approved June 2, 1915, P.L. 736,
An award granted by the referee and board was upheld by the court below. The judgment entered thereon must be reversed.
The essential facts, which are not in dispute, may be stated as follows. Daniel P. Collins, an employee of the Pennsylvania Department of Highways, was on October 27, 1938, working in a quarry, which supplied stone for a public road. About 10 o'clock after "lifting on a stone . . . . . . to place it in shape to split" he complained that he had hurt himself and "held his stomach." He remarked to Thomas Glotfelty, a fellow employee, "I have done it now." The stone, according to the testimony of Glotfelty was "about the size of a bushel basket." He estimated its weight as a couple hundred pounds but admitted that he was "just guessing." *184
Collins remained on the job until quitting time that afternoon, but ceased doing heavy work, devoting himself to carrying water. He drove his automobile home as usual and returned to his work the next morning and continued to perform lighter duties up to and including November 1, with the exception of Saturday and Sunday, the 29th and 30th of October, when the plant was not in operation.
On November 2, he consulted Dr. Frantz at his private hospital. He complained of pains in his abdomen and of having passed blood from his bowels. The doctor recommended that he be put to bed. Collins told him that he had driven to the institution with a lady and that he would drive her home and return on the train. Approximately one-half hour thereafter Dr. Frantz received a call to come to a blacksmith shop, about four blocks distant, where there was a very sick man. He found Collins there in considerable pain and saw blood on the floor indicating that he had had a hemorrhage. He was removed at once to Dr. Frantz' hospital and apparently improved until November 6, when he had another hemorrhage. He died two days thereafter.
Dr. Frantz, the only medical witness, stated that he had known the deceased for five or more years and had treated him three years before for ulcers of the stomach. He expressed the opinion that death was due to hemorrhage from the stomach or duodenum but performed no post mortem. The deceased had told this witness that he was doing work that was too hard for him and that he had hurt himself while working in a quarry lifting stones, but did not state that he had met with an accident. When the doctor was asked if he could determine the cause of the hemorrhage from the history received, he made no answer.
Opinions of medical experts relative to cause are not helpful until an accident is proven by sufficient competent evidence, either direct or circumstantial: O'Neill v. Lehigh Coal Navigation Co.,
Enos Van Sickle testified that Collins was not doing anything outside of his usual work, which consisted of breaking stones of different sizes, some small and some large as "that table" but he stated that he did not see this particular stone. Jesse Stair, a foreman, also called by the claimant, said that the stones Collins had been engaged in moving and breaking weighed from 50 to 200 pounds. He said he was doing his regular work as he had been doing previously. Here, as in Amentlar v. New Upper LehighCoal Company,
In Adamchick v. Wyoming Valley Collieries Company,
In Goettel v. Pittsburgh Coal Company,
In the late case of Crispin v. Leedom and Worrall Company etal.,
The Supreme Court reversed,
In view of the recent utterances of the Supreme Court to which we have referred, we are constrained to hold *188 that the claimant has not carried the burden of proving that death was due to an accident.
Judgment is reversed and entered for defendant.