Insurance company ordered to pay burial costs of school employee who died of a heart attack clearing snow

The Supreme Judicial Court today ordered Woburn's worker's compensation carrier to pay burial and survivor benefits to the widow of David Case, a school custodian who died while operating a snowblower outside a Woburn school on Jan. 24, 2005.

MIIA Workers' Compensation SIG argued Case was due to drop at any moment from severe coronary disease, so his death was not work related. The court disagreed, saying operating the 200-pound snowblower, which required serious physical exertion to move around corners and from side to side, triggered Case's fatal heart attack.

Complete ruling.