Knock v. Industrial Accident Commission

This is a petition for a writ of review wherein the petitioners seek to have reviewed and annulled a decision of the Industrial Accident Commission. The petitioners were refused an award in their favor upon-their application for such award against Montezuma Ranch Company, Inc., and its insurance carrier, United States Fidelity and Guaranty Corporation, the former of these having been the employer of one Malcolm A. Knock, deceased, at the time of his death, and who was alleged to have come to his death through injuries received while such employee of said corporation and in the course of his employment. The undisputed evidence presented before the Commission at the time of the hearing upon said application showed that said Malcolm A. Knock had for several years prior to the time of his death been an employee of the Montezuma Ranch Company, Inc., the principal place of his employment and activities thereunder being upon the properties of said corporation at Collinsville, along the lower reaches of the Sacramento River. During the month of June, 1924, he was required by his employer to go to McArthur, California, for the purpose of inspecting certain peat lands in that region in order to gain information as to the best methods of handling such lands in the interest and for the benefit of his employer. Mr. Knock, with a companion, reached McArthur on the afternoon of June 27, 1924, and proceeded immediately to make the investigation of the lands in question. The elevation of McArthur and of the region traversed by Mr. Knock in the course of such investigation is about thirty-three hundred feet above sea level, and the investigation which he was there to make required that he and his companions should walk over the peat lands in question for a distance of some miles. The walking was difficult and laborious, at times over rough country and at others wading through mud and water which frequently came over the tops of their high leather boots, or requiring them to jump over small sloughs, or travel lands trodden with cattle

Upon the hearing before the Commission it was further shown in evidence that prior to taking said trip Mr. Knock had been to all appearances an unusually healthy and active man and that if he was afflicted with any heart trouble prior thereto that fact was unknown to himself, his friends, and his family. Upon the hearing before the Commission the only evidence bearing upon the existence of any previous disorder of that nature consisted in reports received from two physicians, resident in Honolulu, who had examined Mr. Knock several years previously, one of whom, whose examination was casual, thought he had been consulted as to some heart condition, but could give no details; and the other of whom, whose examination was thorough, stated that there were no indications of any heart affection at that time. The only other evidence upon that subject was that of Dr. Johnson, whose report upon the case of Mr. Knock as it came under his observation at Klamath Falls was submitted; of Dr. Lund, who had known the deceased personally and intimately for years, but who had never been consulted by him professionally, and who, after reading the report of Dr. Johnson, gave it as his opinion that the deceased had died from acute dilatation of the heart, probably caused by his overexertion at a high altitude, but that there may have been some previous heart trouble of which the deceased was not conscious and which the overstrain had brought out ; of Dr. Walker, who had known the deceased in his lifetime

“Findings of Fact.

“1. Malcolm A. Knock was employed as a ranch manager on and about June 27, 1924, at Collinsville, California, by defendant Montezuma Ranch Co., Inc. At said time said employer’s insurance carrier was United States Fidelity and Guaranty Company, and both employer and employee were subject to the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation, Insurance and Safety Act of 1917 [Stats. 1917, p. 831]. 2. The said employee died on June 29, 1924, his death being caused by acute dilatation of the heart. 3. Said heart condition was due to a previous diseased condition being precipitated by the employee’s situation in a higher altitude than that to which he had long been accustomed, but such situation and precipitation did not constitute an injury arising out of the employment. Exposure to a high altitude of a weakened heart, does not constitute an industrial injury.

“Award.

“It is ordered that the applicants take nothing herein.”

A petition for rehearing was presented before the Commission and was granted, wherein Dr. Kilgore was called as a witness and repeated in substance the statements made in his former report. Dr. Harbaugh, assistant medical, director of the Industrial Accident Commission, was also called and examined, after the submission to him of the same

[1] We are of the opinion that the Commission, upon the undisputed evidence presented before it, as above set forth, was correct in its findings that the death of said decedent was caused by acute dilatation of the heart, and that “said heart condition was due to a previous diseased condition being precipitated by the employee’s situation in a higher altitude than that to which he had long been accustomed”; but we are also of the opinion that the Commission was in error in its conclusion that “such situation and precipitation did not constitute an injury arising out of the employment.” The further statement of the Commission that “exposure to a high altitude of a weakened heart does not constitute an industrial injury” must be read and understood in connection with the undisputed evidence in the ease, which shows that such exposure was connected with a marked degree of overexertion at such high altitude, and that such overexertion w/is immediately attendant upon the employment and occupation in which the decedent was engaged at the time of his attack with said heart trouble. [2] The term “precipitation” employed by the Commission in its foregoing findings is a term of well-known signification, meaning the act of precipitating or “to hasten the occurrence of” an event; “the causing to happen or come to a crisis suddenly, unexpectedly or too soon.” (Webster’s New International Dictionary, subject “Precipitation.”) In other words, to precipitate is to accelerate a casualty. The foregoing finding of the Commission to the effect that the death of the decedent was precipitated by his situation in a higher altitude than that to which he had long been accustomed must therefore be read in the light of the foregoing definition, and also in the light of the undisputed

It follows from the foregoing that the conclusion and award of the Commission “that the applicants take nothing herein” was erroneous and that its decision to that effect must be and the same is hereby annulled. The application for an award is remanded to the Commission for further proceedings in accord with the views expressed in this opinion.

Shenk, J., Waste, C. J., Curtis, J., Preston, J., Langdon, J., and Seawell, J., concurred.