174 Pa. Super. 262 | Pa. Super. Ct. | 1953
Opinion by
In this case the claimant sought to recover compensation for the herniation of an intervertebral disc, contending that the rupture resulted from accident in the course of his employment on March 23, 1948. The Board ultimately disallowed the claim and the lower court, in affirming the action of the Board, dismissed claimant’s appeal.
Claimant was a bricklayer in the employ of the defendant. On the day in question he was facing the walls of a room in the Adam Scheidt Brewing Company with tile. The individual tiles were 8x6x2 inches in size and weighed about 4 pounds each. The ceiling in the room was eight feet high. Claimant was working on a scaffold about 3 feet from the floor and because of an overhead beam in the ceiling had headroom of only 4 feet. On turning in the course of his
The Board, after hearing, substituted the following controlling findings for those of the Referee: “Fifth: We find as a fact from a preponderance of the testimony, that at the time claimant sustained pain in the area of his back on March 23, 1948, claimant was performing his usual duties in the usual manner and that there is no evidence of exertion, risk [sic], exposure or unusual occurrence. Fifth-A: We further find as a fact, from a preponderance of the testimony, that the herniation of the nucleus pulposa was a natural development of the injuries sustained by the claimant on October 29, 1946, as a result of his falling from a scaffold while employed by one Richard A. Warner.” (Emphasis ours). Accordingly the Board, in sustaining the appeal by the employer from ah award made by the Referee, concluded: “Since claimant has failed to establish the happening of an accident, while acting within the course of his employment with the defendant herein, he is not entitled to the payment of compensation and his claim petition must be dismissed.”
The same controlling principles apply to claims for compensation based on the herniation of an intervertebral disc as for an inguinal hernia, the most common type. In reality there is little dispute as to the facts in the present proceeding. The findings of the Board are amply supported by the evidence and we are bound by them. The herniation of the disc clearly resulted from the natural development of injuries sustained by the claimant on a prior occasion in 1946 as found by the Board: No accident therefore may be inferred from the disability suffered by the claimant in the usual course of his employment on March 23, 1948. We have reviewed the applicable principles of law in an opinion filed this day in the case of Rosso v. Aetna Steel Products Corp., 174 Pa. Superior Ct. 258, 101 A. 2d 392. We need not repeat the discussion here.
Order affirmed.
He described that type of hernia thus: “Well, between the bones of the spine are pads called intervertebral discs. These discs are composed of outside membrane called the annulus fibrosus. The material within the center of this pad is called the nucleus pulposa and what happens is in a herniation of the nucleus pulposa the outside membrane spUts and allows the material within the disc pad to herniate or extrude.”