## Facts

- Rosa May, about 55 years old, worked for Pearl River Tung Company picking up tung nuts in its orchard.
- The job required carrying a wire basket and repeatedly stooping and bending at the waist to gather nuts while moving from tree to tree.
- On December 18, 1950, while bending over during this work, May suffered a massive cerebrovascular accident (rupture of a brain blood vessel) and died.
- The employer’s injury report described the accident as caused by “picking up tung nuts,” stating May fainted, was taken to a hospital, and never regained consciousness.
- Two physicians testified that the repetitive stooping and bending affected May’s blood pressure and precipitated the cerebral rupture.
- The employer argued the work was not strenuous and that the hemorrhage could have occurred at any time regardless of work.

## Issues

1. Whether a fatal cerebral hemorrhage occurring while the employee performed required stooping and bending constituted an “injury arising out of and in the course of employment” under Mississippi’s Workmen’s Compensation Act.
2. Whether compensation is payable when employment activities precipitate or aggravate a preexisting physical condition, even if the event might have occurred outside work.

## Decision

- The Supreme Court of Mississippi reversed the circuit court and the Workmen’s Compensation Commission.
- The court held that May’s death arose out of and in the course of her employment.
- The court directed that compensation be awarded to May’s dependents.

## Legal Principles

- Compensation is payable for disability or death from an injury arising out of and in the course of employment, without regard to fault.
- An injury is compensable when employment contributes to, precipitates, accelerates, or aggravates a preexisting condition resulting in disability or death.
- The work need not involve extraordinary exertion; ordinary job requirements can satisfy causation when supported by competent medical evidence.
- Commission fact-finding is generally respected, but reversal is warranted when the denial rests on an erroneous legal standard applied to essentially undisputed facts.

## Conclusion

Mississippi workers’ compensation covers deaths and disabilities where ordinary work activities are a contributing and precipitating cause, including cases in which the employment aggravates or accelerates an existing infirmity, even if the same medical event could have happened away from work.


Cowart v. Pearl River Tung Co., 67 So. 2d 356 (Miss. 1953)