Court Opinion

ID: 9856220
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-09-24 06:41:38.67395+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T09:32:35.740494
License: Public Domain

On Motion for Rehearing.
Counsel for plaintiff in error urge that the only fact offered by the claimant for carrying the burden of proving the fact of exertion was the presence of the die blank in the lathe. We *634think that there was more. The supervisor of the department where the deceased employee worked testified that the die blanks were stored about five feet from the lathe, that normally a lathe operator did have help in moving the heavy ones into place and that “all he had to do in using it was roll it over there to the floor, and how he got this piece into the lathe I don’t know.” A fellow; lathe operator testifying as to the manner in which the operation was carried on in the shop said that the operator handled all of the different types of die blanks, putting them onto the, lathe, that “I just pick them off the floor and lay them in the lathe.” He further testified that the work he did and that which the deceased employee, Hutchens, did were the same. The evidence disclosed that very little work had been accomplished on the die blank in Hutchens’ lathe, indicating that it had not been in place for more than about 30 or 40 minutes, and that he suffered his fatal attack at the lathe around 1:30 p.m., having been at work since 8 a.m.
The director, as everybody else, knew that the die blank had to be moved into place by somebody, and since it was a part of the usual work of the lathe operators in that shop to lift the die from the floor onto the lathe and since there was nothing in the evidence to indicate that the die on which Hutchens was Working at the time of his death had gotten there in any other manner, there was enough circumstantial evidence to authorize the finding that he did so. That Hutchens had been admonished to get help in lifting blanks that were too heavy for him or that his physician had warned him to avoid over-exertion leads to no different conclusion, for it was simply a matter of judgment on his part as to whether the lifting of any die blank would result in over-exertion or whether he would need help in lifting it.

Motion denied.