Matthews

The claimant (widow of the employee) has appealed from the reviewing board’s decision affirming the single member’s decision, which had rejected the applicability of G. L. c. 152, § 51A, to her claim.1 The matter was reported to a panel of this court pursuant to the Standing Order Implementing the Interim Rule for Processing Appeals to a Single Justice in Workers’ Compensation Cases (1987).

Matthews had worked for over thirty years for United Shoe Machinery Company. On June 18, 1982, he experienced some *13discomfort at work; later that night, after feeling chest pain at home, he went to the…