ADMINISTRATIVE LAW-OPERATION OF FEDERAL STATUTE CREATING PRESUMPTION AGAINST SUICIDE IN COMPENSATION CASES

Authors

Abstract

A carpenter making repairs nearby, hearing a sharp report followed by groans, found plaintiff's husband lying upon the floor. He died without recovering consciousness from a bullet wound through the breast. The pistol to which the fatal bullet was traced lay in a partly closed drawer which was spattered with blood as was the counter near by. The ejected shell lay some feet away in the position where it would be found had the pistol been discharged directly in front of deceased's breast. There were powder burns on his clothes. Contradictory evidence of deceased's mental state was adduced toward the determination of whether the death was accidental or suicidal. Plaintiff, in proceeding to recover an award against deceased's employer under the Longshoremen's and Harbor Workers' Compensation Act in force in the District of Columbia as a workmen's compensation statute relied upon section 20 (d) of the act creating a presumption to the effect that in the absence of substantial evidence to the contrary it shall be presumed that a fatal in jury was not willfully self-inflicted and that resultant death therefrom was not suicidal. Held, the statutory presumption does not constitute affirmative evidence but is operative only when there is, a complete absence of competent evidence. Del Vecchio v. Bowers, 296 U.S. 280, 56 S. Ct. 190 (1935).

Recommended Citation

ADMINISTRATIVE LAW-OPERATION OF FEDERAL STATUTE CREATING PRESUMPTION AGAINST SUICIDE IN COMPENSATION CASES, 34 Mich. L. Rev. 878 (1936).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol34/iss6/10