Watson v. Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co.

Citations

• 273 Pa. 251
• 116 A. 889
• 1922 Pa. LEXIS 559

Syllabus

<p>Workmens compensation — Appeals—Review—Evidence—Death —Medical opinion — Causal connection between injury and disease.</p> <p>1. On an appeal in a workmen’s compensation case, the inquiry of the appellate court as to the disputed fact is limited to the determination of whether there is sufficient competent evidence to support it. If justified, the legal conclusion of liability follows.</p> <p>2. Where a workman dies within three hundred weeks of the accident “from such violence and its resultant effects,” the employer is liable.</p> <p>3. That death does not occur for a considerable time after the accident, though an important factor to be considered by the one giving an opinion as to the cause, is not conclusive that it resulted from other than the injury.</p> <p>4. An award in favor of a widow of a workman who died of tubercular peritonitis will be sustained, where the appellate court finds there was sufficient competent testimony to support a finding that a resultant condition of a sprained ankle lowered the power of resistance of the deceased, who was tuberculous at the time of the accident.</p>