Court Opinion

ID: 9567144
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-21 19:49:32.947667+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T10:00:12.036813
License: Public Domain

Judge Webb
dissenting.
I dissent from the majority. I cannot agree that the words “external contact surface” have no technical meaning. Dr. Kilburn testified that the respiratory surface of the lung is an external contact surface. As I understand his testimony, this is so because this surface is in intimate contact with the air around us which we breathe. Since the testimony was that byssinosis is an inflammation of the airways of the lung caused by inhaling cotton dust, this would be an inflammation of an external contact surface which would make the plaintiffs disease compensable under G.S. 97-53(13) as it existed in 1963. I believe the Industrial Commission should have so found. I vote to reverse.