Baldwin v. Gum Branch Coal Co.

CULLEN, Commissioner.

In August 1966, when he was age 60, Bayless Baldwin quit work as a coal miner, in which work he had been engaged for 20 years. There was evidence that at that time he was “so short-breathed he couldn’t load coal or couldn’t work,” and that he had been told by a doctor that “he had something wrong with his lungs.” However, Baldwin did not file a claim for workmen’s compensation. He remained idle for the next four years and then, in October 1970, he died. X-rays taken a few months before his death disclosed, according to the testimony of some doctors, that at that time he…