237 Mass. 340 | Mass. | 1921
This is a proceeding under the workmen’s compensation act (St. 1911, c. 751) and amendments thereto. The employee received an injury on July 10, 1919, which resulted in his death on the following day. The insurer concedes that there was evidence from which it could have been found that the injury arose out of and in the course of the employment and that death resulted therefrom. Written notice of the injury was not given as required by Part II, §§15 and 16 of the act, and the question presented is whether there was evidence sufficient to warrant the finding of the Industrial Accident Board that the subscriber had knowledge of the injury under Part II, § 18.
There was evidence that the employee received a strain while loading heavy stone into a wagon, which caused a rupture. The employer’s foreman, Barry, under whom the employee worked, testified that another man was loading the team with the deceased, that “they were within his view, —about ten or fifteen feet away from him,” and that when the team was about half loaded the employee came to him and said “I got an awful pain across here,”—pointing to his stomach; that Barry said, “Sit down, maybe it is cramps you got;” that he advised him to see a doctor, and sent him home in an automobile. This witness also testified that the employee did not explain to him “how it happened; that is all he knows about it.”
On July 12, 1919, two days after the injury and after the employee had been removed to the hospital on July 11, where he died on the same day, the employer made a written report of the injury, which was filed with the board on July 16, 1919; in this report under § D 3, calling for a description of how the injury occurred, it is stated that the employee “was taken ill suddenly while at work and was removed to the hospital, the physician said he had a strain which caused a rupture of which he died of Friday.” Under § E 3, in the report the name of the hospital and of the attending physician were stated.
As the injury occurred before the enactment of St. 1920, c. 223, § 1, amending § 18 of Part II, the case is not affected by the amendment. The board found that on the date of the report the subscriber had knowledge of the injury; that finding must
The evidence that the employer’s foreman, Barry, was present when the injury was received and knew that the employee was suffering great physical pain and had to give up work, together with the facts that the employer had knowledge that the employee had been removed to the hospital and was informed by the physician that he had suffered a strain which caused a rupture from which he died the next day, warranted a finding that the
We find nothing in Brown’s Case, supra, at variance with the conclusion here reached.
Decree affirmed.