Opinion
November 16, 1961
Present — Coon, J.P., Gibson, Herlihy, Reynolds and Taylor, JJ.
Appeal by the claimant from a decision of the board affirming the Referee's finding that claimant did not sustain an accident connected with employment. Claimant, an electrician working on an elevator installation, claimed that on Thursday, April 16, 1959, while pushing wire into a ceiling box he exerted extra effort which injured his back. This alleged injury was apparently not serious enough to require any immediate treatment. Claimant told two coemployees about the accident and complained of his back bothering him while riding home, but he did not tell his partner working with him on the elevator installation nor did he tell his foreman. He gave as the reason for not reporting the incident to his foreman that he felt it was not serious and would go away. On the next day claimant went to work and worked a full day. On Monday, April 20, 1959, claimant quit his job without giving his employer any reason for his action. On April 28, 1959 claimant went to see Dr. Gill about his back. Dr. Gill testified that claimant told him he felt "a sharp pain in his back when he bent over in the kitchen of his home that night;" that claimant never mentioned the April 16 work-connected incident to him. Dr. Gill saw claimant on the one occasion only. On May 1, 1959 claimant was taken to a hospital in an ambulance and subsequently operated on for a herniated disc. The medical testimony of the doctors who operated on claimant support claimant's position but the history relied on is of course based on claimant's version. Claimant asserts that the credible evidence establishes that he sustained a compensable back injury. He attempts to explain his delay in not reporting the accident to his employer and his statement to Dr. Gill. The question of claimant's credibility was for the board and if the board chose to disbelieve him it was entitled to do so. We cannot say that its determination is without substantial support in the record ( Matter of De Luca v. Garrett Co., 12 A.D.2d 569). Decision unanimously affirmed, without costs.