Case Name: McWATERS v. EMPLOYERS LIABILITY ASSURANCE CORPORATION et al.
Court: Court of Appeals of Georgia
Jurisdiction: Georgia
Decision Date: 1946-02-26
Citations: 73 Ga. App. 586
Docket Number: 31164
Parties: McWATERS v. EMPLOYERS LIABILITY ASSURANCE CORPORATION et al.
Judges: Sutton, P. J., and Parker, J., concur.
Reporter: Georgia Appeals Reports
Volume: 73
Pages: 586–587

Head Matter:
31164.
McWATERS v. EMPLOYERS LIABILITY ASSURANCE CORPORATION et al.
Decided February 26, 1946.
Rehearing denied March 26, 1946.
William A. Thomas, for plaintiff.
T. Ellon Dralce, for defendants.

Opinion:
Felton, J.
The only evidence of any probative value whatever offered by the claimant was a death certificate, which stated in effect that the employee's death was caused by a cerebral hemorrhage due to a fall, and that he was found unconscious at the De Soto Hotel in Savannah (where he worked). Such a statement in a death certificate is rebuttable. Code, § 88-1212; O'Kelley v. State, 63 Ga. App. 609 (11 S. E. 2d, 718). There is ample evidence in the record authorizing the finding that the statement was successfully rebutted and that the claimant failed to show death by accident arising out of and in the course of the employment. The director rendering the award was authorized to find that the physician who signed the certificate did not obtain the information from the deceased, and that he did not know from whom he obtained it; that the deceased fell on two very recent occasions when not in the course of his employment; that he fell in his rooming house the night before the morning on which he was found unconscious in his bedroom and was removed to a hospital where he died without regaining consciousness. There was no evidence that the employee's death resulted from a fall at the hotel where he worked or from overwork. The superior court properly affirmed the award.
Judgment affirmed.
Sutton, P. J., and Parker, J., concur.