Winthrop v. Industrial Accident Commission

SEAWELL, J.

This is a proceeding to review an order of the Industrial Accident Commission denying eompensa

[352]

tion to the petitioner, Fannette Winthrop, on the ground that the disability complained of was not caused by the injury suffered by said petitioner in the course of her employment by respondent Wetherby Kayser Shoe Company.

Petitioner, a woman thirty years of age, was employed as a hosiery clerk in a shoe store operated by respondent Wetherby Kayser Company in the city of Los Angeles. While waiting on a customer she climbed upon a stool to reach merchandise on a shelf. The stool tipped and she fell backwards on to the floor. Some uncertainty exists as to the date of the fall. Petitioner fixed it as January 13, 1930, in her application for compensation, and upon the hearing before the Commission she testified that it occurred on January 13th or 14th. She admitted, however, that she was not positive as to the exact date. Her lack of a more certain recollection is explainable as due to the circumstance that she did not for a time attribute her disabilities to the fall. The employer, in a report to its insurance carrier, which was introduced as an exhibit, stated that the fall took place between January 2d and 5th. There is no other evidence as to said dates being correct. Petitioner testified that she was sure it could not have been as early as January 2d.

A fellow employee assisted petitioner to rise and she finished waiting on her customer, although she felt dazed after the fall. She continued to work until January 18th. On January 25th she called her personal physician; on January 27th she was taken to the hospital, suffering acute pain in the lower abdominal region, and on January 31st she was operated on and a large ovarian tumor and her left ovary were removed. At the time she left work she did not know the exact cause of her illness. She did not then attribute it to the fall, and made no demand upon her employer for compensation or medical treatment. The operation revealed that the pedicle or stem by which the tumor was attached to the tissues of the body had become twisted in two places, thereby cutting off the blood supply to the tumor and causing a gangrenous condition, with extreme toxicity, which rendered imperative an immediate operation to save the life of petitioner. It is conceded by the Commission that the highly toxic condition and the acute symptoms of pain and distress which immediately preceded the operation resulted from the twisting of the pedicle of the tumor. The question