Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard, Inc. v. Scherpenisse

On January 20, 1945, Cornelius Scherpenisse, age 51, and employee of Bethlehem-Sparrows Point Shipyard, Inc., stepped upon a nail in getting out of a lifeboat at one of the shipyard piers at Sparrows Point, and sustained a large puncture wound in his left foot. He died in the Church Home and Hospital in Baltimore on March 9, 1945. Claim for workmen’s compensation was made by Marie Scherpenisse, his widow, on the ground that his death was caused by typhus fever, and that the virus had entered his body through the wound. The State Industrial Accident Commission disallowed the claim, but its…