Opinion
March 13, 1962
Appeal from a decision and award of the Workmen's Compensation Board. Claimant worked as a janitor for a hospital in two separate periods in each of which it could be found he was exposed to tuberculosis. The first period was from July 11, 1955 to September 20, 1956 when he left the hospital to engage in employments in which there was no exposure to tuberculosis. The second period was from December 23, 1957 to April 18, 1958 when he was found disabled due to tuberculosis contracted as an occupational disease. The medical proof is entirely to the effect that he contracted this disease in the first period; and that the disease having been contracted before the second period of employment began, the exposure in the second period did not contribute to the disablement of April 18, 1958. If this is so section 40 Work. Comp. of the Workmen's Compensation Law, interdicts the award, since the disease to be compensable in this situation must have been contracted within 12 months of disablement. This, of course, would be possible if the exposure to the disease during the second period of employment could have played any independent part in the ultimate disablement. But it has been seen that the medical opinion as developed in the record negatives such a contraction within the second period of employment. It may well be that there was in fact either contraction of, or an adverse effect on the progress of the disease during the latter period and that sufficient medical proof could be adduced on further hearings to establish this. Award reversed, with costs to appellants against the Workmen's Compensation Board, and claim remitted to the board. Bergan, P.J., Coon, Herlihy, Reynolds and Taylor, JJ., concur.