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Hummel v. Marten Transport7/5/2005
In this workers' compensation matter, the defendants, Marten Transport, Ltd. (Marten), and its insurer, Crawford & Company, appeal from the judgment of the workers' compensation review board (board) affirming the workers' compensation commissioner's finding of compensability. The defendants claim that there was inadequate evidence for the commissioner to conclude that the acute or chronic stress experienced by Henry Hummel, the deceased husband of the plaintiff, Debra Hummel, in his job as a long haul truck driver was a substantial factor in causing his death. We dismiss the appeal for lack of a final judgment.
The commissioner found the following facts. The plaintiff's husband, Henry Hummel, was a cross-country driver of an eighteen wheel tractor trailer for Marten. He was found dead in the sleeper cab of his truck on November 25, 1997. He had returned home from a cross-country trip early in the afternoon of November 24, 1997, looking dirty, tired and agitated. He had a heated dispute with a Marten official over the telephone about whether he was entitled to be paid following an apparent problem with the paperwork that he had submitted earlier. The plaintiff testified that she had known her late husband for more than thirty years and had never seen him in such an agitated state. She feared he would have a heart attack. Following a shower and some rest, he left home between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. He parked near his drop off point in Waterbury so that he could sleep and then drop off his load early the next morning. He died in the sleeper cab before morning.
The commissioner also found that Marten had urged Henry Hummel to drive as much as possible. He falsified his log books to hide from the transportation authorities the number of hours he drove. On the three week trip, completed shortly before his death, he had driven an average of 569 miles per day, and it was not unusual for him to drive 5000 miles in a week. He slept only two or three hours a day and never exercised. He did not eat a proper diet, nor did he eat on a regular schedule. He was a lifelong smoker and sometimes used cigars to wake himself up by burning his fingers when he fell asleep while driving. He was sixty-four years old at the time of his death.
The commissioner concluded that " he stress of [Henry Hummel's] job and its limitations on his time for other activities was a substantial factor in the chain of events which led to fatal ischemic heart disease." The commissioner accordingly ordered the payment of benefits pursuant to General Statutes ยง 31-306, which provides for the manner in which benefits are paid to dependents following death resulting from an accident or occupational disease. The commissioner did not determine the amount of benefits to be paid.
The defendants appealed to the board, claiming that the plaintiff failed to prove within a reasonable degree of medical probability that her late husband's employment was a substantial factor in the cause of his death. The board reviewed all of the testimony, including that of two medical experts, and concluded that an adequate evidentiary basis existed for the commissioner's finding of compensability. The board did not issue a remand order from its decision despite the failure to determine the amount of the award. Thereafter, the defendants appealed to this court, raising the same sufficiency of the evidence claim.
We first address the threshold jurisdictional issue of whether the defendants have appealed from a final judgment. Neither side addressed the issue in its brief, which we raised sua sponte and gave notice to the parties about prior to oral argument. We conclude that the defendants have not appealed from a
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