Opinion
January 17, 1962
Appeal from a decision and award of the Workmen's Compensation Board. The problem on this appeal is whether there is sufficient evidence in the record to sustain a finding of accidental injury to claimant in the nature of a cervical strain for which an award of compensation was made for a six-week period from October 26, 1957 to December 8, 1957, now over four years ago. Although the proceeding throughout was loosely conducted, including both the hearing and the finding upon which the decision is based, we are of opinion the record read most favorably to the claimant's claim would sustain the award; and we are unwilling after this length of time to send the claim back for further hearings unless plainly required to do this by the necessities of the case. Although it seems clear that the claimant's attorney considered on the hearing that he was dealing with an occupational disease, rather than an accident, the claim itself and the contemporary papers in the file relating to it described an accident resulting in a cervical strain occurring on a specific date, August 22, 1957 while claimant was using an iron in the employer's laundry. The employee's claim itself, dated September 16, 1957 described an "accident", and the injury, among other things, as a "cervical strain". The employer's own report states that the "date of accident" is August 22, 1957 and describes the injury as "cervical strain" and "cervical arthritis". The attending physician's preliminary report of August 27, 1957, five days after the accident, describes the injury among other things as "cervical strain". The claimant herself testified that it "felt like something gave way in my shoulder and I couldn't hold the iron any more". Claimant's physician who had filed the report stating that claimant had an accidentally caused "cervical strain" was called and extensively examined; but was not asked either by the claimant's lawyer, who seemed to be pursuing a theory of occupational disease, or by the carrier's lawyer, who fully cross-examined him, whether or not there was a cervical strain. Although claimant was examined by the carrier's medical examiners, no medical witness was called by the carrier to deal with the accidentally caused cervical strain which was adequately described in the reports on file with the board and reproduced in the record. In these circumstances the reports of accidental injury are not impeached or weakened; and the board is authorized to act upon them. That claimant may have had degenerative processes in her spine and that this may have been also fully described in the record, does not itself negative her also having had an accidental strain; and if she got the strain accidentally it is not material whether her physical weakness predisposed her to such a strain. If it happened as an accidentally caused physical event it could be found to be an accident. That the board did not in its findings pin-point the date of the accident; but described "repeated * * * traumas on and after July 27, 1957" is not fatal to the award. Under the present practice, findings are made with marked informality. If one trauma, accidentally caused, happened on August 22, such an event falls literally within these general descriptive words of the board. We see no good reason why after such a length of time and such a loosely constructed record, we should now remit the claim back for more proof and for more findings. The proof and findings before us are enough. Award affirmed, with costs to the Workmen's Compensation Board. Bergan, P.J., Coon, Gibson and Taylor, JJ., concur; Reynolds, J., dissents, and votes to reverse and dismiss the claim.