173 A. 470 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1934
Argued April 27, 1934. Defendant appeals from a judgment entered by the court below upon an award of compensation by the referee and board to the Italian Royal Consul of Pittsburgh in behalf of the widow and minor child of Nick Consentino, who died August 7, 1931, from a heat stroke sustained in the course of his employment with Union Paving Company. The only question here involved is raised by the contention of his employer that Consentino's death was not the result of an "accident," within the meaning of Section 301 of our Workmen's Compensation Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, and therefore not compensable.
No facts are in dispute. Decedent was employed as a laborer on road construction work. For about an hour before his prostration he had been carrying heavy planks from one point to another. In doing so he was obliged to work rapidly and continuously under a hot sun (the maximum temperature for the day having been 94°); he collapsed within a few minutes *297 after carrying the last plank, was taken to a hospital and died about four hours later.
Under such circumstances it is clear, we think, that the heat stroke which caused decedent's death resulted from voluntary exposure to the sun's rays under the normal conditions of his employment, but his death was not the natural, probable and to be expected result of such exposure and labor. On the contrary, it was an unusual, extraordinary and unlooked for mishap.
In a long line of cases, from Lane v. Horn and Hardart B. Co.,
Appellant argues, however, that since decedent's death resulted from an intended and designed exposure to natural conditions, it was not an accident, citing in support of this contention Lacey v. Washburn Williams Co.,
In the next place and in further support of its contention that Consentino's death was not accidental, counsel for appellant cites and places great reliance upon the recent case of Landress v. Phoenix Mutual Life Insurance Co.,
There is nothing new in this case. The majority opinion merely recognizes and applies the distinction between an "accidental injury" and an "injury by accidental means," a distinction fully discussed, and illustrated by a review of all the leading cases on both sides of the line, in the opinion of KELLER, J., speaking for this court, in Trau v. Preferred Accid. Ins. Co.,
The distinction is also clearly recognized by our Supreme Court in Urian v. Equitable Life Assur. Soc.,
So, in the Landress case it was held that recovery could not be had by merely establishing that the death was an accidental result from the voluntary exposure to the sun's rays, under normal conditions, but, under "the carefully chosen words defining liability" it became necessary to distinguish between the "result and the external means which produces it." There, as in most insurance cases, the indemnity was not against an accidental result but became payable "only if the bodily injury, though unforeseen, is effected by means which are external and accidental." In the concluding paragraph of the opinion Mr. Justice STONE said: "Injury from sunstroke, when resulting from voluntary exposure by an insured to the sun's rays, even though an accident ...... has been generally held not to have been caused by external, accidental means."
Among the cases cited in support of this statement are: Ismay, Imrie Co. v. Williamson [1908] A.C. 437, and our own case of Semancik v. Cont'l Casualty Co.,
In the Semancik case (p. 402) the difference between the terms and object of the usual compensation statute and the provisions of most insurance policies is emphasized; that difference is important and applicable in the case now at bar. Under our compensation act all a claimant is required to establish is "injury by an accident" in the course of employment, or in other words, an "accidental injury," as distinguished from an "injury by accidental means," and we now announce that, in our opinion, decisions construing insurance policies indemnifying against injuries caused by "external, violent and accidental means" are not applicable to cases arising under our compensation statute.
We are convinced that the court below was fully justified, under all the authorities and under the facts developed in this case, in entering judgment upon the award of compensation. It follows that the assignment of error must be overruled.
Judgment affirmed.