McDowell v. Town of Clarksville

UHLENHOPP, Justice.

This appeal in a workmen’s compensation case presents a question of causation.

Robert G. McDowell, a truck driver, had a cerebral aneurysm (a permanent, abnormal dilation of a blood vessel resulting from disease of the vessel wall). The fact-finder could also find McDowell had high blood pressure.

McDowell was a member of the volunteer fire department of Clarksville, Iowa. On June 26, 1962, he was at home and heard the fire alarm. He drove to the fire station, where he learned that a flood had inundated a farmhouse. As instructed, he used a hydraulic end loader to fill a dump…