State Roads Commission v. Reynolds

Offutt, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. John C. Reynolds, an employee of the State Roads Commission, become ill while engaged in the performance of his duties and was taken from the place where he was at work to his home at Rockland, in Baltimore County, in his employer’s truck. The chauffeur left him on the seat of the truck, which-had stopped in front of his house, and went in for help. When he returned, he found Mr. Reynolds had fallen from his position, and was dead.

Dr. E. E. Nichols was summoned, and, as a result of his examination and the history of the case which he then received, certified that death had been caused by angina pectoris. The death occurred on July 8th, 1930, and on July 26th, 1930, Mrs. Henrietta Reynolds, the widow, filed with the State Industrial Accident Commission a claim for compensation on the ground that her husband’s death was the result of an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment. The case was contested, and at. the conclusion of the hearing the commission found for the claimant and awarded compensation at the rate of $12.47 per week for the period of 401 weeks, not to exceed $5,000. Erom that award the employer and insurer appealed to the Baltimore City Court, where the case was heard' by the court sitting as a jury.

The verdict and judgment of that court were also for the claimant, and from that judgment this appeal was taken. The single question it presents, raised by ⁵⁴² the refusal of appellants’ demurrer prayers, is whether there was legally sufficient evidence in the case to show that Reynolds’ death was caused by an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his employment. At the time of his death Mr'. Reynolds was seventy-four years of age.

He was employed, ordinarily by the hour as a road patrolman, by the state roads commission, and was assigned to Bellona Avenue between Rockland, where he lived, and Charles Street, in Baltimore County. He was about five feet five inches in height, and in bodily habit somewhat robust. His usual duties were light and desultory in character, trimming the roadside grass, patching small holes, cleaning drain pipes, keeping dirt from the shoulders, and clearing away limbs, trash, or other debris that may have fallen on the roadway. In connection with them he used an ordinary broom, a fork, a shovel, a pick and mattock combined, and a wheelbarrow.

On the day of his death he was taken from his regular work and ordered to assist in loading cobble stones weighing from about fifteen to> thirty pounds into a truck, the top of which was about four and a half to five and a half feet from the ground. The day was very hot, and his work directly exposed him to the sun, which was shining brightly. The truck was being loaded on the York Road, and his work consisted of picking up the cobble stones which had been loosened with a pick from the sand in which they were embedded and throwing them in the truck. He was taken from his work on Bellona Avenue to the truck by the inspector in charge of the work, and when he arrived there the truck had been more than half loaded.

He completed the loading, went with the truck to Charles Street, where the load was dumped, returned, and there is testimony that he then threw in part of another load, although there is other testimony to the contrary. But either at the time he returned from Charles Street, or while engaged in throwing the second load on the truck, he complained of feeling badly, said that he had a pain “in his chest,” and that he had indigestion. J. W. Cooley, who drove the truck, advised him to stop work, and asked if he wanted a physician. He said that he did not, that he wanted to go ⁵⁴³ home.

He then climbed or was assisted to the seat of the truck, where he was supported by Oooley. Oooley drove the truck to Charles Street, dumped the load there, and then drove to Reynolds’ home at Rockland. When he arrived there, Oooley testified: “I was about played out holding him up so he would not fall out the truck, and when I got home I stopped in front of his house and ran in for help. Q. At that time was he living?

A. I would not say for sure, I guess he was about ready to die. Q. Did you tell me he was living at the time you left the truck? A. I set him up in position. Q. Did he maintain that position ?

A. Ho, I came out of the house with Mr. Reynolds’ son-in-law, he came out and as soon as he grabbed him he kind of fell and he must have struck his head, he fell down between the cab and the body of the machine and the window was out and he must have struck his head right here on his ear.” The same witness further said: “Did you have any conversation with him on the way home? A. Yes, he talked to me until he got past Ruxton bridge and that is the last thing he said. He said he was sick and he could not sit alone. I held him there from the time I dumped the stone over to his house.

Q. Hp until the time you dumped the stone had he been conscious ? A. Yes, he had been conscious. Q. You say he must have fallen over when you left him in the truck at his home? A. That’s right.

Q. How far did he fall? A. I judge about two feet from his head to the side, maybe three. Q. When you came out you don’t know whether he was dead or not ? A. He was dead when we picked him up.” Dr. E. E. Hichols, who examined him, and certified the cause of death as angina pectoris, testified that in his opinion when Reynolds fell over he was dead, and that the fall had no connection with his death.

But he said that in view of the facts brought out at the hearing he had changed his original opinion that death was due to angina pectoris. In connection with that conclusion he said: “When I reached there Mr. Reynolds was dead; they had taken him in the house and I looked him over and listened ⁵⁴⁴ to Ms heart; he was dead. I asked a few questions and the family told me that he had complained of pain in his chest and had died, and my impression at that time was the man died in a few minutes and had been brought home dead, but the- subsequent history of this thing’; has been brought out here; he was taken sick with pain in his chest and he evidently lived an hour before he came home. And another point in the history of the thing that I did not get at the time was the fact that Mr. Reynolds was a man accustomed to do light work and I passed through there time and again, every other day or so, and have seen him on the road picHng up paper and digging out grass, and on this day I understand he had been taken off the light work and put on heavy work.

The day was extremely hot, I don’t know just what it was but it was around the hundred mark, but I believe the cause of the man’s death, if you want me to state that, considering the fact he was stricken and lived an hour, more or less, that he had been doing heavier work than he was used to, he does not do- that kind of work, and in view of that, plus the heat of the sun, near the hundred mark, I believe that the- cause of his death was the extreme heat that ■day. _ i “Q. That would be called, in medical terms, heat prostration? A. Heat prostration -or heat 'stroke will Mil them quicker than prostration but I did not see his general countenance of features when I saw him at the-time he was dead, and of course the features were- entirely different from seeing him when he was alive. * * * You testified that a man who suffered from heat stroke or heat prostration, normally the older he is the less resistance he has to withstand that. In that condition would a shock from a fall precipitate or induce or accelerate his death? A. Certainly, a fall like that would accelerate or hasten it a great deal in that length of time that it took this fellow to. run in the house and out again.

(<Q. (By Commissioner Crothers) : Would heat stroke cause the man to fall over without dying — -you said you thought he was dead when he fell over, he would not have to be dead to fall over? A. No, he could get a stroke from the heat and ⁵⁴⁵ render him unconscious and lay him flat. Q. And he would still live after that?

A. Yes, for a time at least. Q. Would this blow on his head accelerate his death if he was living at the time ? A. The condition he was in, yes, if he got a blow on the head it could have helped it or hastened it. * * * Q. On the death certificate you gave the cause of death as what? A. Angina pectoris.

Q. In the light of the history have you changed your mind? A. Yes, I have, because the duration is a few minutes, my understanding at the time was he only lived a few minutes. I did not get the understanding he was brought home alive, my understanding was he died a few minutes and was brought home and that plus the history of pain in his chest would indicate he died from angina pectoris, but at the time I did not get a history of the other things, I did not hear anything about the fall. And another thing, on this hot day this man was doing this extra heavy work, work that I know he did not. * * * Q. Doctor, you are passing your opinion on the heat or heat plus the character of work the man was doing?

A. That’s what I say — the man would get his blood hotter by the work he was doing that day than he ordinarily would because his work was lighter.” Doctor Nichols, who had been his family