This case represents the classic controversy posed by Wieda v. American Box Board Co., 343 Mich 182, come full circle.
Raymond Mottonen died of a heart attack at the Calumet & Hecla’s Iroquois mine at 39 years of age while doing his regular work in the regular way. Subsequent to his death his widow filed a claim for workmen’s compensation which was denied by the referee August 6, 1958. His opinion made no reference to this Court’s decisions in Sheppard v. Michigan National Bank, 348 Mich 577, and Coombe v. Penegor, 348 Mich 635, decided June 10, 1957. Subsequently, relying on these cases, the workmen’s compensation appeal board reversed the award of the referee and granted compensation, whereupon defendant appealed.
Both the referee and the defendant argue that this record shows no unusual strain or exertion, and hence that compensation may not be allowed.
The basic requirement for recovery of workmen’s compensation by a claimant is proof of a disabling personal injury, or death, “arising out of and in the course of his employment.” CLS 1956, § 412.1 (Stat Ann 1959 Cum Supp §17.151).
The Sheppard and Coombe Cases served to eliminate from construction of the Michigan workmen’s compensation statute the former case-law requirement of proof of an accident (“a fortuitous circum*661stance”) (see Arnold v. Ogle Construction Company, 333 Mich 652) as a condition precedent to recovery of compensation where the statutorily-required proofs were present. Coombe also held that the fact of a pre-existing disease or injury did not bar compensation where the record showed that a disabling injury arose out of and during the course of employment without proof of accident or fortuitous event.
In both of these cases, the injured party was doing his or her regular work in the regular way but so doing occasioned disabling personal injury and compensation was granted. We read these cases as definitely rejecting the argument of the referee and the defendant herein that Mottonen’s widow may not, as a matter of law, recover compensation absent proof of “unusual strain.”
We see no occasion to repeat the lengthy arguments ' by which these conclusions were reached, which are fully recorded in the majority and dissenting opinions in Wieda, supra, and the several opinions in Sheppard, supra, and Coombe, supra.
We regard the question of the extent of strain or exertion imposed by his employment upon decedent in this case as related only to the question of whether or not his death arose out of his employment. His activities immediately prior to death formed the basis for the hypothetical question posed to medical witnesses. Hence, the record must be analyzed to determine whether or not there is any evidentiary support for the crucial findings of fact of the appeal board:
“The arduous physical effort of deceased in the rock house during a period of weeks immediately prior to April 10, 1957, was directly related to his death. Such physical effort precipitated the final heart attack which deceased suffered and caused his death.”
*662.. It is clear from this record that Mottonen’s work preceding his death was not unnsnal for him. It certainly would have been for millions of others.
: Up to February, 1955, Mottonen worked at the ■Iroquois mine as an underground miner. On February 17, 1955, he experienced chest pains and consulted Dr. K. L. Repola. Examination and a cardiogram disclosed a coronary thrombosis, which condition Dr. Repola described as “moderate.” Dr. Repola prescribed rest, and Mottonen stayed off work until September 1, 1955.
• When Mottonen returned to work, Dr. Repola warned him against strenuous activity. Thereafter, Mottonen worked at various jobs, including that of compressor man. Presumably none was as strenuous as underground mining.
■ About a month before April 10, 1957, Mottonen was assigned to a job as “rock house man.” The rock house was an elevated structure to which the ore was brought by dump carts, and where it was crushed and loaded.
The work of a rock house man required a daily climb of 40 to 50 feet to the rock house.
His partner, Reino Koukkari, testified:
“Q. When you and him would climb up the stairs from the ground to the rock house 40 or 50 feet would he be exhausted when he got to the top ?
“A. He was out of wind. It was a long climb for him.
“Hearing Referee:
“Q. Why did you say he was out of wind!
“¿..He was breathing heavy.”
As to the job itself, Koukkari testified:
“Q. What are your duties as a rock house man?
“A. When I worked in the Iroquois ?
“Q: Yes.
“A. My duties were that Ray operated the ropes and I did the barring and sledging and raking down.
*663“Q. Ray worked on both sides? He hooked from one side and you from the other?
“A. Yes.
“Q. His job required him to run the feeding pan?
“A. Yes.
“Q. Are there usually 2 men working in the rock house ?
“A. Yes.
“Q. How do you get the large rocks from the pan into the crusher after you raise the pan?
“A. We bar them and scrape them out.
“Q. If some are too large?
“A. We take them out and drill them and break them up. * * *
“Q. When you have a large piece of copper mass caught in the crusher how do you get that out?
“A. Well, we clean out the crusher first and put the chain block on and put the crusher on.
“Hearing Referee: How do you clean the crusher, by hand? Do you shovel it out?
“A. Sometimes, yes, if it is muddy.”
To break up the larger chunks of ore, a rock house man used a bar, a sledge hammer, and a jackhammer.
Koukkari apparently felt that Mottonen could'not perform the job fully, and that Mottonen’s' employment in the rock house required him (Koukkari) to take the heaviest load. He testified, however, that Mottonen performed all the tasks outlined above.
Henry Snapp, a miner and vice president of the Iroquois local union, testified that he had notified the mine captain that the rock house work was too strenuous for Mottonen in view of his heart condition. He was told there was no easier job for Mottonen.
While working the night shift of April 9, 1957, on his regular job in the rock house at the mine, Mottonen complained of pains in his chest. He rested several times but completed his shift and went to the *664“dry” room at the mine to change clothes where he died on the early morning of April 10th.
Answering a hypothetical question, for which we find ample support in this record, Mottonen’s treating physician testified:
“Q. Do you have an opinion, Doctor!
“A. I think at the present state of our knowledge there is a causal relation between the coronary thrombosis and the amount of work this man did, assuming this situation.
“Q. Doctor, knowing that Reino Mottonen had a pre-existing heart condition, a disease known as coronary thrombosis, and assuming the facts to be true that I previously stated as to his duties as a rock house man, which required strenuous physical exertion, in your opinion from a medical point of view is there a causal connection between the job described and a coronary thrombosis that resulted in his death on April 10, 1957!
“A. Once again, in the present state of our knowledge, I would say that is true that there is a causal connection between the amount of exertion and the coronary thrombosis.”
We note, of course, that defendant emphasizes that Mottonen was a cigarette smoker, that he drank beer, and that he was somewhat overweight. We note that a medical witness testified that he did not believe his work had produced or aggravated the heart condition which caused his death.
What this portion of the record demonstrates, however, is a clear-cut dispute of fact as to whether or not Mottonen’s death arose out of his employment. This, it was the statutory duty of the appeal board to resolve.
“The findings of fact made by the compensation commission acting within its powers, shall, in the *665absence of fraud, ,be conclusive.” CL 1948, § 413.12 (Stat Ann 1950 Rev § 17.186).
Tbe appeal board, in finding that “deceased sustained a personal injury arising out of and in the course of his employment and due to causes and conditions characteristic of and peculiar to the business of the employer,” apparently gave somewhat greater weight to the testimony of the doctor who examined and treated Mottonen during his lifetime than to the defendant’s expert witness who never saw him. It had every right to do so. Wilson v. Doehler-Jarvis Division of National Lead Company, 353 Mich 363, 372; Redfern v. Sparks-Withington Co., 353 Mich 286, 301.
Affirmed. Costs to appellee.
Smith, Kavanagh, and Souris, JJ., concurred with Edwards, J.