Cruz v. Industrial Commission
Cruz v. Industrial Commission
Opinion of the Court
Judgment
On the ground that the alleged accident occurred while the laborer was doing the work he was used to perform and that the evidence did not reveal that he was doing an unusual effort, a majority of the members of the Industrial Commission denied the claim for compensation presented by the beneficiary of the deceased Ruperto Cruz Lugo.
The expert testimony was conflicting. While Doctor Timothee sustained that the death was caused by extraneous causes to the employment and that it would have happened in the natural life of the laborer, Dr. Taveras, consultant doctor of the Industrial Commission, admitted that the fact that the laborer suffered the hemorrhage when he was pulling the cane, may indicate that the effort made when he swung the machete to cut the stalk was responsible for the commencement of the cerebral hemorrhage.
This case is in the border line of the compensation for cardiac accidents. Now, having abandoned the rule of unusual effort as a controlling factor of the availability of the claim there only remains for decision whether there exists causal relation between the facts related and the final conclusion. Fernández v. Industrial Commission, ante, p. 284; cf. Cuquerella v. Industrial Commission, ante, p. 494; Valls v. Industrial Commission, ante, p. 587. There is no doubt that in the present case an unexpected result happened and
The decision rendered by the Industrial Commission on May 15, 1959 is reversed and the case is remanded for further determinations consistent with this judgment.
It was so decreed and ordered by the Court as witnesses the signature of the Chief Justice.
I attest:
(s) Ignacio Rivera General Secretary
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.