Georgia Casualty Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

YORK, J.

On writ of review of a finding and award by the Industrial Accident Commission rendered in favor of Whi Rim Lee, Duck Wha Lee, and Chan Hi Lee, applicants, of a death benefit and burial expenses in the total sum of $1,745.25, on account of the death of an employee named Yili Soo Lee, and dismissing the employer from the proceeding and discharging him from liability therein.

The first objection of petitioners herein is based upon the fact that the death of the employee Yili Soo Lee was not directly caused by the incision of the left thumb which severed a tendon, which incision was received in the course of employment, but was caused solely by reason of the administration of a general anesthetic, which the doctors testified was necessarily administered to cause a relaxation of the tendon so that the same might be properly stitched together, the undisputed evidence in the case showing that the death of the employee was caused by such anesthetic by reason of some persistence of a gland in the neck, a gland which is usually present only in infants; a very rare condition to exist in a person of his age, and which condition could not have. been discovered before death, and being such a condition as would make the administration of the general anesthetic necessarily fatal. The general anesthetic used was nitrous oxide gas, considered to be the safest general anesthetic. The evidence shows further that the employer and employee consulted the Georgia Casualty Company officials at Los Angeles, and were instructed by their agents and employees to have the employee undergo the treatment at the hands of such surgeons and at the time and place of such treatment, which said treatment resulted in his death. There is no evidence that the administration of the anesthetic could reasonably have been avoided. Under the circumstances as shown, it appears that the original injury was a continuing operative cause of the employee’s death, and that the administra

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tion of the anesthetic was not an independent and separately operating cause of his death.

The application for compensation was filed in the names of the four applicants “by their attorney-in-fact, D. Chung.” The petitioner alleges that the Commission was without jurisdiction over the matter in controversy in this, that no application for compensation was filed “by any party in interest, his attorney, or other representative authorized in writing,” as required by section 17 (a) of the Workmen’s Compensation Insurance and Safety Act of 1917 as amended (Stats. 1919, p. 918). That section provides, in the phraseology last above quoted, for the filing of the application in writing for an award of compensation in the cases covered by the statute. Among other things, it further provides that “there shall be but one cause of action for each transaction coming within the provisions of this act.”