29 S.E.2d 434 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1944
1. The evidence authorized the finding that the notice of injury given by the employee to one of his superiors, was sufficient.
2. The evidence authorized the finding that the employee received an injury arising out of and in the course of his employment resulting in a hernia, that the rupture preceding the hernia appeared suddenly, was manifested by accompanying pain immediately and without substantial interval following the accident, and that the resulting protrusion followed in due, natural, and uninterrupted course from the rupture.
1. The board was authorized to find from the evidence that the employee notified Mr. Cain immediately that he thought he had hurt himself. The employer concedes that Mr. Cain was the employee's superior. The evidence is conflicting on the question whether Mr. Cain referred the employee to another of his superiors, and also as to whether Mr. Cain reported to the other superior what the employee had told him. It is true that the employee testified that he did not think the injury amounted to anything, but we do not understand that the notice of an injury must be given with a view to a claim of compensation at the time it is given. We think a notice is sufficient which will put the employer on notice of the injury so that he may make an investigation if he sees fit to do so. An employee should not be penalized because he did not consider his injury serious enough to contend immediately that he was entitled to compensation.
2. In Liberty Mutual Insurance Co. v. Blackshear, 197 Ga. (
The finding was authorized from the foregoing evidence that the claimant strained himself on July 15, 1942, and that a rupture occurred at that time; that it was immediately accompanied by pain which continued and resulted in a hernia in due, natural, and uninterrupted course.
The award of the deputy director, which was affirmed by the board, stated in part: "The Supreme Court on February 9th, 1943, rendered a decision in the Hardware Mutual Insurance Company *798 et al. v. Sprayberry, which in the opinion of this director, who heard the case, demands a finding that the right inguinal hernia sustained by the claimant, was the result of his accident and injury on July 15th, 1942, and arose out of and in the course of employment." The employer contends that this statement shows that the director did not make the necessary findings of fact to authorize an award, but made the award under the compulsion of the ruling in the case cited. We do not agree with this contention. The Sprayberry ruling was to the effect that it is not essential to recovery for hernia to show that the injury was sustained in an extraordinary occurrence. What the quoted paragraph means is that the injury in this case was not from an extraordinary occurrence, such as an unusual strain, and that it was not required to be.
The court did not err in affirming the award.
Judgment affirmed. Sutton, P. J., and Parker, J., concur.