Ideal Mutual Insurance Company Et Al. V‪.‬

This is a workmen's compensation case wherein the single director found in favor of the claimant, and on appeal the full board,
without making an independent finding of fact, reversed this award for the stated reason that there was not sufficient evidence
to support it. The claimant then appealed to the Judge of the Superior Court of DeKalb county, who reversed the full board
for the stated reason that the evidence demanded a finding in favor of the claimant. The evidence discloses without dispute that the claimant had been employed by Kraft Foods Company for about 18 months, during
which time he was engaged for 8 hours per day in lifting heavy boxes of cheese onto a table, averaging about 10,000 pounds
per hour; that while thus engaged, on or about December 14, 1953, the claimant noticed a pain in his leg, slight at first
but growing progressively worse until on December 19 he went to a doctor, who diagnosed the complaint as a cold in the leg
and prescribed rest. The claimant then took his vacation, but the pain continued to grow worse until on December 31 he went
back to the doctor and X-rays were made, from which a ruptured invertebral disk was suspected. On January 4 he returned to
work. On this occasion he informed his supervisor of his condition and advised him that he would be unable to do heavy lifting.
He continued to work, however, until January 30, 1954, on which occasion the ruptured-disk diagnosis was confirmed and he
was hospitalized under traction. His condition continued to be painful and he can do no work involving lifting. He has been
unable to find any work he can do although he is somewhat improved. He does not remember any particular injury or the exact
time when the pain started. he was asked, "Are you positive that you have not sustained any accident on the job around that
time or sprained yourself in any way while you were lifting?" to which he answered, "Not as I know of, nowhere." Doctors who
examined and treated him were of the opinion that the lifting caused the ruptured disk, and one of them testified: "Sometimes
they are immediate with one lift and sometimes I think the thing can gradually work out over a period of time with nothing
you can point to, just like Mr. Ray says he has no particular injury that caused it and I think he is correct in what he says,
but I think his lifting could be medically the thing that actually caused it." Another doctor testified that ruptured disks
are generally traumatic in origin, and that it was his opinion that continuous lifting from 40 to 90-pound packages from the
floor to a raised platform for 8-hour periods of time would contribute to the rupturing of the disk. On cross-examination
he stated that he did not know that such work caused the disk injury in this particular case.