Maryland Casualty Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

The petitioners seek to annul an order of the Industrial Accident Commission awarding compensation to Calvert Briley, an employee of petitioner California Lutheran Hospital, for an injury to his eyes. Briley was employed by the California Lutheran Hospital as a cook and testified that while he was engaged in his work as such cook he stooped over to look into the oven of a gas range, and that as he did so there was a gas explosion in the range and a blast of flame suddenly came out of the oven door and struck him in the right eye, burning the eye and some of the hair on his face around it and causing a sharp pain in the eye; that the eye immediately swelled shut and that he has not been able to see out of it since. He further testified that the flame did not strike his left eye and he then felt no pain in it, but that since the accident the sight of his left eye has gradually failed and that before the accident occurred his sight was good in both eyes. The Industrial Accident Commission found that Briley was “burned in left eye by flame from gas stove, causing injury to left eye, affecting the vision of both eyes.”

The petitioners contend, first, that the evidence does not show…