Robertson v. North American Refractories Co.

¹⁸⁸ Bond, C. J., delivered the opinion, of the Court. The appellant claims compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act (Code, art. 101, as amended) for the death of her husband of heart disease while at his work, on the ground that the death was brought about by an accident, but the State Industrial Accident Commission failed to find an accidental cause, from the evidence, and on appeal below the court, too, failed to find legally sufficient evidence to prove it, and directed a verdict against the claim. The finding of the commission had the effect not only of showing a possibility that the death occurred without accidental cause, but of requiring it to be presumed, prima facie, that it did so occur, and of putting upon the claimant the burden of proving that it did not. Code, art. 101, sec. 56, as amended by Laws 1927, ch. 587.

And this court in turn fails to find evidence sufficient to meet the burden, and to furnish the basis for a reversal of the finding below. The deceased man worked at firing a brick kiln, and without anybody’s having seen the preceding happenings, was found lying dead, on his back, on a coal pile before the kiln and behind the fireman’s working space. Burns on the skin, described as of the size of half a dollar, but longer, were found on his forehead, his cheek, and his left hand. And from the presence of these burns the claimant traces an accidental production of a heart stroke, on the theory that the burns preceded the stroke and produced it by shock.

It was testified that the walls of the kiln were so thick that bums could not have been received from touching them, that the kiln had no door to the opening, the fire