Albert Van Luit Wallpaper Co. v. Workmen's Compensation Appeals Board

Opinion

KINGSLEY, J.

The applicant, Frank Taylor, was employed by Albert Van Luit Wallpaper Company, as a stock clerk. He claims industrial injuries, consisting in part of aggravation of a preexisting hernia and a preexisting cardiac problem.

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After a hearing, and on the basis of medical reports before him, the referee found that Taylor’s problems were not work connected and denied an award except for certain medical-legal costs. Taylor duly petitioned for a reconsideration. The referee filed a report on that petition, recommending denial, but with some slight modification of his reasoning. The board, by an order dated February 2, 1972, granted reconsideration. Additional medical examinations, reports and testimony followed, resulting in the award now before us, which granted Taylor temporary disability and permanent disability (rated at

65 V2

percent) for an industrially caused aggravation of a hernia and heart condition.

The employer and two insurance carriers petitioned this court for review of the board’s final order. This court denied both petitions. The employer and one carrier (Reliance)

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sought hearing in the Supreme Court, which granted the request and re-referred that case to us, citing two cases hereinafter discussed. Accordingly we issued our writ of review in the employer-Reliance case; return has been made; the matter has been argued and submitted. For the reasons set forth below we affirm the award.

[91]

Petitioners seek annulment of the award both on procedural grounds and on the merits.

I

Admittedly (although the referee originally expressed a doubt) Taylor has a heart condition serious enough to have required open heart surgery. The medical evidence before the board on reconsideration disclosed a conflict of professional opinion, one doctor finding no industrial connection, another a 50 percent relation and a third 100 percent. The board’s award is based on a finding of 75 percent industrial causation. We cannot say that that finding is without support in the ultimate record.