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King v. TTC Illinois9/28/2000
APPEAL FROM: Workers' Compensation Court, Honorable Mike McCarter, Judge Presiding
Submitted on Briefs: August 24, 2000
Decided: September 28, 2000
The widow and four children of Russell King appeal the decision of the Workers' Compensation Court that they are not entitled to workers' compensation benefits as a result of King's death. We affirm.
The sole issue on appeal is whether the Workers' Compensation Court erred in ruling that the death of Russell King was not compensable under the Montana Workers' Compensation Act of 1993.
Russell King died on June 26, 1995, at the age of 45. He was survived by his wife Kathleen King and six children. Three of King's children (Phillip, Mary, and Sarah) were minors when he died. King's daughter Melissa, who was an adult at the time of her father's death, has spina bifida and hydrocephalus and uses a wheelchair.
King was employed as an over-the-road truck driver for TTC Illinois, Inc. The truck King was driving was owned by Sammons Trucking and leased by TTC. TTC was insured by Credit General Insurance Company under Plan II of the Montana Workers' Compensation Act.
On June 26, 1995, around 1:00 p.m., King stopped at the PowerMatic plant in Finksburg, Maryland, to pick up heating units for TTC. Upon arriving, King unstrapped two folded tarps he carried on the flat bed of his truck. PowerMatic's shipping and receiving employee, Tony Mack, brought a forklift alongside the trailer and raised the forks up to the height of the trailer bed where the tarps were. He and King then slid the 60 to 70-pound tarps approximately four feet from the trailer onto the forklift. According to Mack, this was accomplished without difficulty and King did not appear to have unusually exerted himself.
Another PowerMatic employee then loaded the heating units onto the flat bed trailer. King, "chitchatting" with Mack, said something to the effect of, "Boy, it's kind of hot out here." Mack noticed a drop of sweat running down King's face, but did not view this as unusual in the approximate 85 degree temperature and 90 percent humidity.
After the heating units were loaded, King got out some straps and prepared to strap the heating units to the truck. King worked on laying the straps out for about half an hour, after which he told Mack he wanted to "take a little nap" and went to lie down in his truck cab. Mack checked on King twenty minutes later and was unable to rouse him. Around 2:00 p.m., a state police officer determined that King was dead.
A Maryland medical examiner who participated in King's autopsy stated that King died of atherosclerotic cardiovascular disease which had been present for some time. In the medical examiner's opinion, King's death was immediately preceded by sudden arrhythmia, or abnormal electrical activity in the heart, which could have occurred spontaneously or could have been triggered by King's activities immediately prior thereto. The medical examiner maintained, however, that the underlying cause of death was King's chronic severe atherosclerotic disease.
The Kings brought this suit following Credit General's denial of liability for their workers' compensation death claim.
Discussion
Did the Workers' Compensation Court err in ruling that the death of Russell King was not compensable under the Montana Workers' Compensation Act of 1993?
A claimant has the burden of proving his or her entitlement to benefits under the Workers' Compensation Act. DuMont v. Wickens Bros. Constr. Co. (1979), 183 Mont. 190, 201, 598 P.2d 1099, 1105. We review the findings of fact of t
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