Geagan's Case
David Geagan's (dependent's) Case
Opinion of the Court
Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.
Lummus, J.
From a decree awarding compensation for the death of the employee, the city appealed. The employee received a compensable personal injury, a comminuted fracture of the ankle, and was taken to a hospital. While there, six days after the injury, an operation was performed upon him for the relief of an old hydrocele unconnected with the injury. Twenty-one days afterwards his death was caused by an embolus that reached his lung.
Upon all the evidence the embolus might have resulted from either the fracture or the operation. The burden was on the claimant to show by the preponderance of the evi *320 deuce that the fracture was the cause. The board as the tribunal of fact was entitled to believe the expert testimony for the claimant that the fracture would destroy much tissue, break many blood vessels, and form clots, while the operation would cause little bleeding, for the veins involved are small and speedily tied; and that the great weight of probability points to the fracture as the cause. Upon this evidence the finding in favor of the claimant was “warranted. DeFilippo’s Case, 284 Mass. 531 , 534r-535. Bennett v. Fitzgerald, 284 Mass. 535, 538 . Sheppard’s Case, 287 Mass. 459, 463 . McAuliffe v. Metcalfe, 289 Mass. 67 . Robinson’s Case, 299 Mass. 499, 502 .
Decree affirmed.
How later courts describe this case
No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.
Cited by 4 cases
View all citing references →Relies on it most ⓘ
Most recent
Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.