Court Opinion

ID: 9636628
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 14:36:01.258308+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:09:47.486768
License: Public Domain

AUGUSTUS N. HAND, Circuit Judge
(concurring).
I think it is a fair inference from the proof that any condition of latent tuberculosis is likely to become active by working in grain dust. Many persons are subject to this infirmity and if such persons are likely to develop tuberculosis from working in dust the resultant condition would seem to be an occupational disease— that is, a disease peculiar to and arising from the occupation.
Even if the disease would not come upon a person free from latent tuberculosis, yet if there are substantial numbers of persons having latent germs of tuberculosis who are likely to develop that disease, they are entitled to the benefit of the statute if their condition is aggravated by conditions peculiar to their occupation. On the other hand, I do not think that a disease would be “occupational” if it would only develop in sporadic and very rare instances and never among persons in normal condition. To be an “occupational disease” there must be a likelihood that it will arise among a substantial number of workmen (whether they possess physical infirmities or not) because of the occupation in which they are engaged. I think there was such a likelihood in the present case and, therefore, the judgment should be affirmed.