195 A. 437 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1937
Argued October 5, 1937. We agree with the learned judge of the court below, Judge LAMBERTON, that there is no competent evidence in the record to support the finding of the Workmen's Compensation Board that the claimant's husband sustained an accident, while in the employ of the defendant, which caused injuries resulting in his death on June 25, 1933.
The decedent was a night watchman in the employ of the defendant, Vare Construction Company, which was doing some construction work for the Pennsylvania Railroad Company near the bridge over the Schuylkill River at 33d Street, Philadelphia. He left his work at seven o'clock in the morning of March 9, 1933, and arrived at his home, 1413 N. 55th Street, about three quarters of an hour later. Subject to the objection of the defendant's attorney, the claimant testified that when her husband arrived home he was limping and told her that at six o'clock that morning while he was going by a fence along the railroad property at 33d and Oxford Streets, a "two by four board" which was leaning against the fence fell on his foot and injured his toe. No one else was present when the board fell. No one testified to the presence of such a board on the premises where he was employed. There was no apparent reason or purpose for its being there. The employee told no one of the accident until he got home. The toe was then "swollen and the nail had gone black." There is *206
no reasonable doubt that his death occurred as the result of an injury to the toe. A gangrenous condition developed which resulted in his death. But there is no competent evidence that the injury was received while he was at work on the employer's business; nor are the circumstances of the accident such as to point to its occurrence while in the course of his employment rather than at some other time and place. If a board or plank fell on his foot, it could just as easily and probably have fallen on it while on his way to work, or on his way home from work, as while at work. There was no natural connection between his work and the accident such as was present in Nesbit v.Vandervort Curry,
The assignments of error are overruled and the judgment is affirmed.