ABSTRACT
Reddish v. London, Midland and Scottish Railway, decided at the Manchester county court last week, was one of those interesting cases where death from heart disease is found to be an accident within the Workmen’s Compensation Act. An engine-driver collapsed and died on the express from Manchester to London. The court had to consider whether his employment had caused a strain which in turn had caused death. The widow contended that the heart attack was due to her husband’s effort in helping to turn the turn-table at Manchester station before beginning the journey: it was aggravated, she said, by his action in closing the regulator of the engine when the train was running down from Haddon Tunnel to Rowsley. The judge went in person to the railway station, entered the cabin of an express engine, and tested for himself the requisite degree of exertion. He came to the conclusion that to pull the regulator over when the train was at rest meant no serious effort to an engine-driver in good health, but that, if the train was travelling down an incline with considerable oscillation, the effort would be a strain to a man in Reddish’s state of health. The work contributed to, and materially accelerated, death; the employers were therefore liable to pay compensation.
