Opinion
January 13, 1943.
Present — Hill, P.J., Crapser, Bliss, Heffernan and Schenck, JJ.
The insurance carrier and employer appeal from a decision which held that the decedent sustained accidental injuries which resulted in his death and awarded death benefits to his wife and minor children. The appellants contend that the record contains no competent evidence that any accident occurred. The decedent was employed as a shipping clerk by a plumbing supply house. He died on October 14, 1940, as a result of being stricken on October 9, 1940, by a coronary occlusion and myocardial infarction. The decedent came to work early on October 9, 1940. A truck was in the yard adjacent to the store and was backed into the platform; a steam boiler was on the truck having been placed there the preceding day; the boiler lay on its side; it was four and one-half feet long and two and one-half feet wide; it was lengthwise in the truck which was seven feet four inches wide. One end of the boiler was a foot from the tail-board of the truck. The boiler weighed 1700 pounds. Enamelware and other plumbing materials had to be loaded on the truck which contained the boiler and a hand-truck was used for this purpose. Decedent, who proceeded to load the truck, could not have gotten by the boiler with the hand-truck without moving the boiler. A few minutes after decedent had started loading the truck another employee went out to the truck and found the decedent propped up against the boiler unconscious. His knees were in the air, his back against the boiler, with his head dropped on his chest. His feet were against the side of the truck. Decedent was carried to an automobile and taken home. Another employee came to see him at his home on Sunday and was able to speak to decedent for a few minutes. Decedent told the fellow employee that he had tried to pry the boiler with his back, using his legs as leverage, to try to shift the boiler a bit away from the center of the truck so that he would be able to get whatever he wanted to load on that truck. In that particular case he told him he was going to put some enamelware, which was in bulky packages and required a lot of room, on the truck. While he was doing that he got a sudden pain and fainted. Award unanimously affirmed with costs to the State Industrial Board.