Court Opinion

ID: 9791731
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 02:16:45.587361+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:37:38.177832
License: Public Domain

SCHWAB, C. J.,
dissenting.
I agree with the opinion of the majority in so far as it sets forth the legal principles by which we must determine whether or not a heart attack is compensable. However, I believe that under the facts of this case the claimant has faded in her burden of proof.
On the day of the heart attack, Monday, July 8, the deceased told the first doctor he saw, Dr. Cleary, that * * [W]hde driving a logging truck he developed a sudden severe attack of chest pain * * and that during the previous night he had “* * * some chest pain.” Apparently the deceased, in giving a history to the next doctor he saw, Dr. Yorheis, did not mention the pain he had experienced the previous night, but told the doctor only that he became dl whde “bringing in a load of logs.” Based on this testimony, Dr. Yorheis connected the decedent’s heart attack with his work activity.
I do not believe that Dr. Hald’s testimony is worthy of much weight. He says that in his opinion the heart attack was caused when the decedent was attempting to throw a chain over a load of logs at the *591“landing.” There is nothing in the record to show that the attempt to throw the chain immediately preceded the onset of the decedent’s heart attack. The only testimony is that when he was observed shortly after he attempted it, he was obviously ill. For all the record discloses, he might have been suffering from the heart attack long before he attempted it. Further, Dr. Hald says that since the decedent had a previous heart attack he would not have gone to work if he had suffered serious chest pains the previous night. The uncontradicted testimony is that regardless of when the decedent first suffered the onset of a heart attack he was seriously ill either before, at the time, or just after he attempted to throw the chain over the logs at the landing. Yet, he then proceeded to drive the loaded log truck for many miles before going to see a doctor.
I find nothing in the record by which we can do anything other than speculate as to when the ultimately fatal onset began or what caused it.
For the foregoing reasons I respectfully dissent.