33 A.2d 643 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1943
Argued April 14, 1943. The question for solution is: Where an injured employe, confined to a mental hospital by reason of mental derangement resulting from compensable injuries, is attacked by another inmate and dies as a result of the injuries inflicted by his assailant, are his dependents entitled to workmen's compensation?
There is no dispute about the facts. Claimant's husband was injured in the course of his employment. His head was bruised and his right leg fractured. He was taken to a hospital where he remained five weeks. When he was discharged his leg was still in a cast which caused an ulcer. He became depressed, had crying spells, pains in his head; at times he was violent and abused his wife and children. He refused to eat properly, lost control of his personal self, had long periods of melancholy, drank kerosene and one time either drank or attempted to drink mercurochrome. Almost two years after the accident he was committed to a mental health hospital. His case was there diagnosed *111 as chronic dementia with some brain deterioration and that condition was found to be the result of the blow upon his head, the fracture of the right leg and the ulcer. While so confined, about four months after the commitment, Wengryn was attacked by another inmate, receiving severe bodily injuries from which he died.
Promptly after the accident the employer executed a compensation agreement and payments were made thereon until the employe's death when they were discontinued. Thereafter, the widow filed a claim for compensation alleging that his death was due to his injuries. The referee found that Wengryn's mental illness was caused by the accident, that his removal to the mental hospital was directly occasioned thereby, that he died as a result of the injuries sustained at the hands of his assailant, and awarded compensation to the widow and dependents. The board affirmed the referee. The court below, holding that the attack by Wengryn's fellow inmate was an intervening and superseding cause, reversed and entered judgment for the defendant.
This case is ruled by the principles applied in Kolyer v.Westmoreland Coal Co.,
Appellant strongly relies upon Marshall v. Pittsburgh,
The Workmen's Compensation Board quoted Judge PARKER'S statement in the Marshall case concerning the analogy between proximate cause and causal connection, but concluded: "In the instant case, we conclude that the accident was the natural and proximate cause of the decedent's death. It is not denied that decedent became mentally ill as a result of the accident, and that this condition necessitated his confinement in a mental institution among other mental patients. We do not agree with defendant's contention that the act of the fellow inmate was a sufficient intervening cause to break the chain of causal connection. It is common knowledge that mental patients act irrationally, and are likely to harm themselves or others. We believe that the reckless and wilful misconduct of the fellow inmate was a possibility to which decedent would be subjected, and, *114 therefore, cannot be deemed a sufficient intervening cause, breaking the chain of causal connection between the accident and decedent's death. The decedent was placed in a position of peril, due to his mental illness, brought about by his accident and confinement in the institution. It is evident that he was unable to guard against the misconduct of other inmates."
Appellant lays great stress upon this conclusion, but it is manifestly unsound. Mental patients do indeed act irrationally and occasionally harm one another. This case itself shows that one inmate may even kill another and, therefore, all inmates are exposed to that possibility. But, the test is not whether death may possibly result but whether it willprobably result. "But things or results which are only possible cannot be spoken of as either probable or natural. For the latter are those things or events which are likely to happen and which for that reason should be foreseen. Things which are possible may never happen; but those which are natural or probable are those which do happen, and happen with such frequency or regularity as to become a matter of definite inference": S.S. Pass Ry. Co. v. Trich,
The irresistible conclusion is that the death of claimant's husband at the hands of a fellow inmate was not the direct, proximate, natural and probable result of the original injury. It was a novel and extraordinary happening with no natural and continuous sequence between injury and death and no direct connection between them. To paraphrase § 306 (f) of the Workmen's Compensation Act of 1915, P.L. 736, as amended, which was in effect at the date of the decedent's original injury, the employe died "from some other cause than the injury" and, therefore, the employer's "liability for compensation shall cease."
Judgment affirmed.