31 A.2d 358 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1943
Argued March 2, 1943.
In this workmen's compensation case the claim is for disability resulting from a femoral hernia alleged *68
to have been caused by an accident within the scope of claimant's employment. There was evidence offered that the hernia was caused by an accident. Claimant concedes, however, that if the `hernia amendment,' Act of June 21, 1939, P.L. 520 § 1, added to Act of June 2, 1915, P.L. 736, art. III, § 306(h),
The question is whether the hernia amendment is applicable to a femoral hernia.
The compensation board held that it was not applicable and made an award of compensation. The lower court reversed and entered judgment for defendant. Claimant has appealed.
The femoral hernia differs from the inguinal or more common variety in that, in the former, the abdominal contents protrude through the femoral canal, through which passes the femoral vein and artery, whereas in the inguinal hernia the abdominal contents protrude through the inguinal canal through which passes the spermatic cord. Although we have not been called upon to decide the precise point, the trend of our decisions would indicate that there is no valid distinction, for the purpose of applying the hernia amendment, between any of the various types of abdominal hernias or ruptures. In holding that the Amendment of 1927 (Act of April 13, 1927, P.L. 186, § 1) which, for present purposes is identical with the Act of 1939, was applicable to an umbilical hernia, this court, in Zelenko v. Carnegie Coal Co.,
Although we are not unwilling to correct an error or reverse a trend of decisions when the correct, though different, way is pointed out to us, we are not satisfied that we should do so here. Our decisions in Roberts v. Hillman Coal Coke Co., supra, and in Zelenko v. Carnegie Coal Co., supra, were decided prior to the passage of the Act of 1939, and since they dealt with almost identical language in the earlier Act of 1927, we presume that the legislature intended "the same construction to be placed upon [the language in the later Act]." Statutory Construction Act, Act of May 28, 1937, P.L. 1019 art. IV, § 52, 46 P. S. § 552. In the Amendment of 1939 the legislature had an opportunity to correct our alleged error or misunderstanding but it made no effort to distinguish between various types of abdominal hernias. And although we have indicated the amendment does not apply to internal hernias but only to the ordinary types of hernias which involve noticeable protrusions from the abdominal cavity (Pollockv. Clairton School Dist.,
The judgment is affirmed.