Our client was a World War II Army medical corpsman veteran who had gone to work at a dispensary operated by one of the iron mining companies on one of Minnesota's iron ore ranges.  He had operated the x-ray machine, administered injections and medications and generally kept the place running for about thirty years.  After he was diagnosed with high blood pressure, his physicians (including the physician at the dispensary to whom he reported) asked him to confine his hours of work each day to no more than eight, and to avoid working more than forty hours in any one week.

As times changed for the worse for the iron mining company employing our client, it decided to increase his hours per day, to a level greater than his physicians (including his own supervisor) though safe for him, in an effort to cut costs.  Our client was hurt and angry over the way his employer was treating him after thirty-plus years of loyal service, and it ate at him.  One night, while he was at his lake cabin, he suffered a serious heart attack that left him effectively permanently totally disabled from employment.

The heart attack had occurred while our client was off duty, at his lake home, while he was lying in bed.  It would be difficult to convince the judge the heart attack was related to the job.

We commenced a claim proceeding in the Minnesota workers' compensation court system and prevailed after a hearing.  The employer appealed the trial judge's finding the heart attack was legally caused by our client's employment to the Minnesota Workers' Compensation Court of Appeals, but the appellate court upheld the award in favor of our client.  He received over $350,000 in past-due benefits and was paid a weekly benefit for the rest of his life.