Opinion
No. 35876
Decided May 27, 1959.
Workmen's compensation — "Injury" — Physical or traumatic damage accidental in character — Injury caused by exerting more effort than customary not compensable, when.
APPEAL from the Court of Appeals for Mahoning County.
The claimant, Carmel Carbone, was employed by the defendant General Fireproofing Company as an inspector of metal aircraft parts. In order to properly support long metal strips while inspecting them, she placed them on a work bench or table. As she started the work of inspection on the day in question she noticed a heavy metal plate on the bench, which would interfere with her work if left there. In removing it from the bench she slid it to the edge of the bench and in attempting to lift it to the floor discovered it was heavier than she had expected and allegedly strained her wrists. She continued work that day and did not report the incident until later.
The Industrial Commission denied her claim. She appealed to the Common Pleas Court, seeking judgment against her employer, a self-insurer, and praying that the Administrator of the Bureau of Workmen's Compensation, who was also made a defendant, order compensation to be paid to claimant. The jury rendered a verdict for claimant, on which judgment was entered.
The Court of Appeals affirmed the judgment.
The cause is in this court for review, pursuant to the allowance of a motion to certify the record.
Mr. Eugene B. Fox and Mr. Marvin Traxler, for appellee.
Messrs. Harrington, Huxley Smith, Mr. C. Kenneth Clark and Mr. William E. Fowler, Jr., for appellant.
The determinative question now before the court is whether the claimant sustained an injury within the contemplation of the Workmen's Compensation Act. This court is of the opinion that she did not. The alleged injury suffered by claimant was not a physical or traumatic damage or harm accidental in character and as a result of external and accidental means in the sense of being the result of a sudden mishap, occurring by chance, unxxpectedly and not in the usual course of events, at a particular time and place. The fact that claimant exerted more force in lifting the metal plate than was ordinarily required in the course of her work does not entitle her to recover workmen's compensation.
The judgment of the Court of Appeals is reversed and final judgment is rendered for defendants, on authority of Dripps v. Industrial Commission, 165 Ohio St. 407, 135 N.E.2d 873. See, also, Davis v. Goodyear Tire Rubber Co., 168 Ohio St. 482, 155 N.E.2d 889.
Judgment reversed.
WEYGANDT, C.J., MATTHIAS, BELL, HERBERT and PECK, JJ., concur.