Chatman v. Compania de Navegacao, Lloyd Brasileiro

This is a suit under the Workmen’s Compensation Law (Act No. 20 of 1914, as amended). Plaintiff, a negro longshoreman, alleges that, while in the employ of the defendant company, he was injured by the falling of two sacks of coffee, which struck the handle of a truck, with the result that the truck handle struck petitioner in the back, “causing a severe contusion of petitioner’s back and that this jolt, jar and blow and the contusion caused thereby did and has severely aggravated the hypertrophic arthritis of petitioner’s lumbar spine.” He prayed for compensation at the rate of $20 a week and…