Opinion
November 16, 1961
Present — Bergan, P.J., Gibson, Herlihy, Reynolds and Taylor, JJ.
Appeal from a decision of the Workmen's Compensation Board which awarded benefits for decedent's disability and subsequent death caused by a spinal cord sarcoma, which the board found had been aggravated by an accidental back injury, with the result that its growth was accelerated and decedent's death hastened. Concededly, claimant sustained multiple accidental injuries but appellants assert that these did not include the trauma to the back essential to the medical conclusion upon which the award was predicated. Appellants' contention is, in essence, an attack upon the credibility of the well-corroborated hearsay testimony of the widow, of the history taken by the attending physician and his own observation of an abrasion, and of the history of an impact which "twisted" decedent's back, taken by another physician; but the credibility of the evidence was, of course, for the board. Appellants' additional contention that there was no "competent" medical evidence of causal relationship is equally tenuous. Respecting the theory of traumatic aggravation of cancer, the evidence developed the usual conflict of medical opinion, claimant's three experts finding causation and appellants' two witnesses denying it. The award rests upon substantial evidence. Decision and award unanimously affirmed, with costs to the Workmen's Compensation Board.