04-03622-H-9368. Mason vs. Peco Foods of Brooksville.

• Case Date: February 07, 2006
• Court: Mississippi

Mississippi Worker Compensation 2006. 04-03622-H-9368. Mason vs. Peco Foods of Brooksville KIMBERLY MASON AND JASON SHELTON AS DEPENDENTS OF KIM MASON, DECEASED CLAIMANT VS PECO FOODS OF BROOKSVILLE EMPLOYER SELF-INSURED MISSISSIPPI WORKERS' COMPENSATION COMMISSION MWCC NO. 0403622-H-9368REPRESENTING CLAIMANT: Honorable Angela Turner-Lairy, Attorney at Law, West Point, Mississippi REPRESENTING DEFENDANT: Honorable Richard M. Edmonson, Attorney at Law, Jackson, Mississippi FULL COMMISSION ORDER The Commission heard the above styled cause on February, 2, 2006 in the offices of the Mississippi Workers' Compensation Commission in Jackson, Mississippi on the Claimant's "Petition for Review", by the Full Commission. Having heard the arguments offered on behalf of the parties and having thoroughly studied the record and the applicable law, the Commission affirms the "Order of the Administrative Judge" dated September 14, 2005. SO ORDERED, this the 7th day of February, 2006. February 7, 2006Once again, the Commission has been called upon to decide whether the dependents of an employee who fell dead on the job are entitled to the meager benefits allowed by the Workers' Compensation Law. Once again, a majority of the Commissioners reviewing such a claim have denied the payment of these benefits, and in so doing, have once again demonstrated a point I made only recently - "The only consistent thread among our decisions in-these types of claims is our inconsistency." Oscar Harbin, Deceased v. Outokumpu Heatcraft USA. LLC, 03-07679-H-7827 (Nov. l 2005);, seealsoBrown v. Delphi-Packard, 99-08914-G-6001 (Oct. 21, 2005). The only difference between these earlier cases, and the present, is that Kim Mason did not fall victim to a heart attack or sudden cardiac death. But this, to me, is a distinction without a difference. Kim Mason fell dead, on the premises of her employer, at a time and place where she would properly be in the course and scope of her employment; and, she fell dead suddenly and without warning. It was later determined that the mechanism of death was self suffocation, or Pickwickian syndrome. Due to her morbid obesity, Kim Mason suffered a compression of the diaphragm and fatal compromise of her respiratory system by her-own body mass when she attempted to put her work boots on, from a standing...