A succession of accidents, each small in character but resulting in their cumulative effect in the injury of which the workman complained, can constitute an accident within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Act.

CHAKRAVARTTI, C. J.

( 1 ) THIS appeal raises an important question under the Workmen's Compensation Act on which, I confess, I have not found it easy to come to a satisfactory conclusion.

( 2 ) THE appellant, Chillu Kahar, was a workman under the respondents, Messrs. Burn and Company Limited, but in what exact capacity he was employed is not clear. The respondents alleged that he was a hammerman, but the appellant denied that allegation, although subsequently he appears to have admitted it. His positive case, however, is that his duty was to "join iron into the furnace and to take it out on opening the door of the furnace'. ' The respondents' case that he was a hammerman and worked at some distance from the furnace probably means that his duty was to beat heated pieces of iron and steel into shape. It may well have been that the appellant was a hammerman, but he was himself required to throw into the fire and draw out the pieces of iron and steel which he was required to beat up. Unfortunately, there is no clear find- ing on the matter and the learned Commissioner does not seem to have realised the necessity of arriving at a clear finding.

( 3 ) BE that as it may, the appellant's case is that the duties of his job were such that his eyes were exposed to the glare of the furnace and during the twenty years that he had served the respondents, that exposure had slowly impaired his eyesight till a crisis came on 9-3-1950, when there was a sudden flash which completely blinded him in both of his eyes. It was on the footing of such continuous exposure to high light and the particularly intense flash on 9-3-1950, with the effect of completely blinding him, that the appellant based his claim for compensation.

( 4 ) THE defence of the respondents was, as I have already stated, that the appellant had been a mere hammerman. Their further case was that the defect of his eyesight was due merely to old age. Besides stating these two facts the written statement contained no other averment. It ended up with the submission that the case of the appellant was a purely speculative one and was liable to be dismissed.

( 5 ) THE record of the case on which we have to decide the appeal is in an extremely unsatisfactory condition. Evidence was not led on material points or if led, ,not properly recorded. Such record as the learned Commissioner made is extremely scrappy in character and deals only with superficial matters. Nevertheless, the parties agreed that we might give our decision on the findings of the learned Commissioner, as they were.

( 6 ) THE findings of the learned Commissioner are, (a) that the appellant had lost 50 per cent of his eye-sight, (b) that such partial loss of eyesight had not been caused by old age, but was the result of continuous exposure to the high light of the furnace in the course of the appellant's employment under the respondents and (c) that nothing extraordinary had happened on 9-3-1950, which in any way aggravated' the malady.

( 7 ) HAVING come to the findings which I have summarised above the learned Commissioner proceeded to consider whether the facts found by him entitled the workman to claim that he had suffered an accident which had resulted in an injury. The answer, the learned Commissioner thought, must be in the negative. He pointed out that it was not sufficient for the appellant to establish that he had lost his vision in the course of his employment under the respondents, but he was required also to prove that the loss had been caused by an accident. As regards accident, the learned Commissioner proceeded to observe that it must be an accident which took place On a particular day and consequently as he had found that the allegation of a particularly intense flash on 9-3-1950, had not been proved, the appellant could make no claim on the basis of an accident, although his eyes might gradually have reached their present condition on account of the continuous action of the glare of the furnace upon th

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