Court Opinion

ID: 9605479
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 02:37:49.490763+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T13:16:51.385060
License: Public Domain

COMPTON, Justice (dissenting). I would affirm the judgment. The majority opinion says there was medical evidence to the effect that the workman suffered two heart attacks resulting from his work, but denies recovery on the ground there was no proof of causal relationship between the injuries and the death. I believe claimant’s account of his last seizure, standing alone, establishes causation, or at least presents a question for the trier of the facts. She testified as follows : “Well, he had been out on the job and he came home and I saw him standing — staggering up to the trailer and I started out to help him, and he said, ‘take me to the doctor’, he said T have an awful pain’ and he grabbed his chest and he was doing his hand like this (indicating) and he said ‘I’ll have to change my clothes’ and he said ‘Oh, my goodness, I’ve got to get a doctor, quickly’ * * *. And he was bent over a chair like this (indicating) and he turned purple. That is the only color I can say * * *. He turned dark and he was gasping and clutching his chest.” The majority says that the death certificate is the only definite evidence of the immediate cause of death. Quite the contrary; to so hold would exclude reasonable inferences to be drawn from the evidence. The certificate was signed by one who knew nothing about his previous attacks. His attending physicians, however, as I appraise their testimony, treat the injury and death as cause and effect. Dr. Baumgardner testified that the workman had suffered “permanent damage to the heart” as a result of the first attack. He further testified that it was natural that subsequent heart attacks would follow the initial one when the heart muscles had been thus damaged. Dr. Dettweiler saw the workman in June, 1956, following the second attack. He also testified that he had sustained heart damage. Then there appear the following questions propounded to Dr. Dettweiler and his answers thereto: “Q. Now, under the situation which I have outlined to you, up to this point, which I won’t repeat in detail, could it be — would it be an expectancy that Mr. Alspaugh would finally die as a result of the first and second heart attacks? A. Yes. The statisticians fairly well show that approximately a third of the people survive their first attack and approximately another third of the remaining survive their second attack; and the other third do not survive their third. Those are rough statistics. They are not accurate, but fairly close. “Q. And after a person had suffered two heart attacks of the type which have been described, the expectancy would be that he would ultimately die as a result of it, wouldn’t that be true? A. Well, he would be a very good candidate, yes.” (Emphasis ours.) The workman had the first attack in December, 1955, the second in April, 1956. He lingered until July 30, 1956. And there is no proof that he had a third attack as the opinion seems to suggest. In such circumstances, the trier of the facts could very logically infer that death resulted from the attacks. If the majority opinion is to become the law in this jurisdiction, I sense an end to recovery in “heart cases” unless death occurs to the workman while engaged on the job or immediately thereafter, or unless there is positive medical evidence produced to support the claim; yet, we know medical evidence, as valuable as it may be, is not indispensable in such cases. The majority seems to completely overlook the medical evidence and the testimony of Mrs. Alspaugh, or at least reappraises it. Believing an erroneous conclusion has been announced, I dissent.