Marquard v. Pacific Columbia Mills

Ness, Justice:

This is a workmen’s compensation case. Respondent’s decedent suffered a fatal heart attack on September 23, 1975, in the card room1 at Pacific Columbia Mills, his place of employment for the fifteen years preceding his death. Appellants appeal from a finding that respondents were entitled to compensation for accidental injury. We affirm.

For several years preceding Marquard’s death, he experienced symptoms of byssinosis,2 i.e., difficulty in breathing, tightness in his chest, and coughing fits. The hearing commissioner determined that the unusual stress placed upon Mar-quard’s…