Opinion
October 6, 1955.
Present — Foster, P.J., Bergan, Coon, Halpern and Zeller, JJ.
Appeal by the employer and its insurance carrier from a decision and award which granted compensation to the claimant. The board found claimant sustained accidental injuries in the nature of an aggravation of a pre-existing unstable fifth lumbar vertebra while he was loading reels of wire weighing 200 pounds. There is a conflict in the medical evidence on the issue of causally related disability, but there is substantial evidence in the record to sustain the finding of the board. The employer did not know of claimant's injuries until he reported it seventy days after the accident. However, the board excused the delay in filing notice upon the grounds (1) that claimant was unable to give notice within the statutory thirty-day period because the employer's factory was shut down due to a strike and (2) that the employer was not prejudiced by failure to give the notice within the time prescribed. (Workmen's Compensation Law, § 18.) The finding that the employer was not prejudiced by the delay in giving notice is supported by the evidence in the record and the inferences to be drawn therefrom. Decision and award unanimously affirmed, with costs to the Workmen's Compensation Board against the appellants.