Mark v. Industrial Accident Commission

PULLEN, P. J. Petitioner, the widow, and Mary Lucille Mark, a minor step-daughter of Howard Mark, seek to review and annul the findings and award of the Industrial Accident Commission, wherein it was held that the evidence failed to establish that the death of Howard Mark was caused, contributed to or accelerated by his employment.

Petitioner contends that on June 15, 1937, the decedent, Howard Mark, sustained a coronary occlusion as the result of violent and unusual exertion in his employment, and that such coronary occlusion was the proximate cause of his death on July 31, 1937.

The commission held that the evidence failed to establish that the death of Mark was caused, contributed to or accelerated by the particular coronary occlusion on June 15th but that death was the result of an underlying pathological condition of the heart and organs, without reference to the particular occlusion, and as a result of that finding, relieved the employer from liability.

It is necessary, in order to pass upon this question, to analyze the testimony adduced. In doing so we have in mind that as early as 1911 the people of the state adopted the first Workmen’s Compensation Act (Stats. 1911, p. 796), which has been amended and revised from time to time, although in general the essential provisions of the earlier acts have [497]been incorporated into the later enactments. The present act (Workmen’s Compensation Act of 1917, Stats. 1917, p. 831) is based upon the status of the individual and not upon any theory of contract, and that an employee is entitled to compensation for an injury sustained in the industry, regardless of any breach of duty upon the part of the employer, the compensation being a charge against the system, and comes out of production. In the ease of death of the workman in the course of his employment it is the intent of the act to relieve society of the burden of caring for his dependents, and to place that burden upon the industry. (Harlan v. Industrial Acc. Com., 194 Cal. 352 [228 Pac. 654].) The act itself imposes upon the courts the duty to liberally construe the various beneficial provisions of the act to the injured and bereaved persons.

With the foregoing mandate in mind we find from the evidence that Howard Mark was, on June 15, 1937, and for some time prior thereto, employed as superintendent of the Borden ranch. He was about fifty years of age and weighed about 250 pounds, 6 feet three inches tall and in apparent good health.