Court Opinion

ID: 9770857
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-29 16:23:26.293934+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T07:31:21.386288
License: Public Domain

George Bose Smith, J., dissenting. If it were our duty to view the evidence in the light most favorable to the claimant I should agree with the majority opinion. But we are required to sustain the Commission’s findings if supported by substantial evidence, and I do not see how it can be said that this record lacks such evidence. The notion that the Commission tested the case on the basis of an occupational disease alone is untenable. The Act contains an exclusive list of occupational diseases; no other disease may be so classified unless the Commission amends the list. Ark. Stats. 1947, §§ 81-1314 and 81-1343 (11). The appellant’s principal malady is nephritis, a serious kidney disease. He also suffers from bronchitis or bronchial asthma. Since none of these diseases is classified as an occupational disease it seems to me to be beside the point to suppose that the Commission denied the claim solely because no occupational disease existed. That was not even an issue in the case. On the issue of accidental injury there is much evidence that is ignored by the majority. On this point the Commission stated in its opinion: “There is no evidence of any accidental injury or other unusual happenings or events during the claimant’s last working day or in fact any other working days during his entire employment.” The so-called “collapse” referred to by the majority appears to have occurred after Triebsch went home. Triebsch testified that he worked the entire shift on the night in question. The culmination of appellant’s illness on January 28 was by no means sudden or unexpected. He himself testified that for eighteen months his work had been too difficult for him. He often had to go outside and rest, while a fellow employee took his place. Other employees testified to the same effect, readily admitting that over this long period of time they had to help Triebsch with his Avork. As was inevitable, the appellant’s kidney disease finally reached the point of totally disabling him. It is not unusual for men to become disabled as a result of old age or disease; it happens to almost every one. But such a case is not compensable unless the employee’s condition is aggravated by some accident occurring in the course of his employment. There is convincing medical testimony to the effect that nothing in the conditions at the smelter had any aggravating effect upon the claimant’s maladies. Triebsch was a sick man and no doubt should not have worked at all during the last eighteen months. But there is substantial evidence to show that any labor at all would have brought on his disability. This being true, the disability is not compensable merely because the inevitable at last occurred, without the intervention of an accident. At least there was positive evidence to that effect, and I do not feel authorized to substitute my judgment for that of the Commission. Griffin Smith, C.J., joins in this dissent.