Ellison v Calvert & Heald    Workmen’s Compensation – Accident – No evidence of cause of injury – Reasonable
inference – Delay in notice of accident – Reasonable cause – Workmen’s Compensation Act
1925 (c 84), ss 1(1), 14.
An electrician was employed in the foundations of a building in a cutting, the roof of which
was so low that he had often to lie on his back with his head resting on the floor. Men who
worked there had to discard their caps because of the heat due to central heating pipes. The
place was dark, dusty, and dirty. When he returned home on 23 November 1934, the
electrician showed his wife (the appellant) a sore place on the back of his head, which neither
regarded as serious, and he continued to work as usual. On 26 November he felt so ill that his
wife tried to dissuade him from going to work. He went to work but came home early and
complained of pains in the chest and in the head, and in the evening his condition was
serious. On the following day he remained in bed, and his doctor found that he had bronchitis
in both lungs but did not connect it with the septic wound on his head. He was admitted to
hospital on 7 December suffering from septic meningitis and septic pneumonia, and on 10
December he died from septic meningitis. The doctor who conducted the post-mortem
examination attributed the septic condition to the small wound on the back of the head as the
place of entry of the poison. On 7 December the appellant notified the employers (the
respondents) verbally that the illness was due to the workman having hurt his head in the
cutting, but there was no evidence adduced as to such cause of the illness. Written notice was
given to the employers on 22 January 1935. An award of compensation was made to the
appellant on the ground that the balance of probability was that the small would on the head
was caused at work, and that the want of notice of the accident was occasioned by mistake or
other reasonable cause:—