Workmen's Compensation — Total disability — Ownership and operation of poultry farm — Profits due to management of claimant's wife — Evidence.

In a workmen's compensation case, in which it appeared that claimant accidentally suffered contusions of the head with extra dural hemorrhage as a result of which he was totally disabled, and an agreement was entered into providing for compensation for total disability; that claimant suffered from post-concussional syndrome, having a memory defect, impaired judgment, and considerable mental deterioration; that claimant's wife purchased a chicken farm and with claimant moved to the farm in an effort to prevent a mental collapse on the part of claimant and for the purpose of trying to rehabilitate him; that the wife handled all of the financial transactions, kept all the records, employed help when necessary, and claimant worked when he felt like it; that there was evidence that the profits from the operation of the poultry farm were due to the joint efforts in the family, largely under the supervision and management of the wife, and not the result of claimant's management and endeavor; that the board found that claimant approximately twenty-three years later continued to be totally disabled as a result of the accidental injury; and that the court below, holding that defendants had failed to sustain the burden of proof, dismissed the employer's petition to terminate; it was Held that the order of the court below should be affirmed.

Argued June 17, 1965.