## Facts

- Harry Connelly worked for Hunt Furniture Company as an embalmer’s helper.
- While performing assigned duties, he handled a corpse infected with gangrene.
- Connelly had a small cut on a finger; infectious matter entered through the cut during the work contact.
- Afterward, he scratched a pimple or sore on his neck with the infected finger, transferring the infection.
- The infection spread, causing septicemia and Connelly’s death.
- Connelly’s dependent mother sought workers’ compensation death benefits.

## Issues

1. Whether an infection contracted from handling a gangrenous corpse, entering through a minor cut during work, constitutes an “accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employment” under the New York Workmen’s Compensation Law.
2. Whether the employee’s later act of scratching his neck with the infected finger breaks the causal connection to the employment.

## Decision

- The New York Court of Appeals reversed the Appellate Division and reinstated the Industrial Board’s award of death benefits.
- The court held the infection was an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of employment.
- The scratching of the neck was treated as a natural incident that did not sever causation.

## Legal Principles

- An infection may qualify as an “accidental injury” for workers’ compensation when it results from an unintended, fortuitous exposure to a specific harmful source during work.
- A condition is more likely treated as an accident (rather than an occupational disease) when it is traceable to a definite time, place, and incident in the performance of job duties.
- “Arising out of” is satisfied when the employment creates a work-related risk of the harm, and “in the course of” is satisfied when the exposure occurs while performing assigned work.
- Ordinary, foreseeable intervening acts consistent with normal human behavior may not break the causal chain from the work exposure to the ultimate injury.

## Conclusion

The court recognized that a work-related infection, when linked to a specific exposure during job duties, can be compensable as an accidental injury, and that a subsequent ordinary act that spreads the infection does not necessarily defeat causation.


Connelly v. Hunt Furniture Co., 147 N.E. 366 (N.Y. 1925)