Opinion
November 16, 1961
Present — Coon, J.P., Gibson, Herlihy, Reynolds and Taylor, JJ.
Appeal by the employer and its carrier from a decision and award of the Workmen's Compensation Board that decedent had contracted pemphigus, an occupational disease, while working as a butcher. The board in a prior decision denied the claim on the ground that no accident was proven but on appeal this court reversed and remanded the case to the board with the observation that the occupational disease aspect of the case had not been considered ( Matter of De Tura v. Eastern Meat Markets, 3 A.D.2d 486). At pages 488 and 489 BERGAN, J., stated, "On the latter question [occupational disease] we would think there is adequate and substantial medical proof to permit the board to find, if it chooses to find, that the decedent died of an occupational disease * * * without attributing it to any particular accidental occurrence." This the board has now done. On the remand considerable additional medical testimony was taken, as to this rare disease, about which much is vague and unknown, but there is sufficient evidence upon which the board could find that the decedent died of pemphigus acutus, or butchers pemphigus. Appellants contend that there is nothing in the record that pemphigus vulgaris, as decedent's condition was originally termed, is a disease common to butchers, but from the conflicting medical proof both before and after remittance there is substantial evidence from which the board could find that decedent's disease was pemphigus acutus and an occupational disease. Decision and award unanimously affirmed, with costs to the Workmen's Compensation Board.