Anchor Casualty Co. v. McGowan

168 F.2d 323, 1948 U.S. App. LEXIS 2048
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedJune 4, 1948
DocketNo. 12277
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 168 F.2d 323 (Anchor Casualty Co. v. McGowan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Anchor Casualty Co. v. McGowan, 168 F.2d 323, 1948 U.S. App. LEXIS 2048 (5th Cir. 1948).

Opinion

LEE, Circuit Judge.

The cause of action asserted in this case arose by reason of an accident which happened on the 22nd of March, 1946, while the plaintiff below, appellee here, was working for Morris & Meredith, Inc., in Colorado County, Texas. Morris & Meredith, Inc., was a subscriber under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Texas, Vernon’s Ann. Civ.St.Tex. art. 8306 et seq., and carried its insurance with the appellant, defendant below. The appellee is a resident of Texas, and the appellant is a foreign corporation authorized to do business in Texas. In his petition, the plaintiff alleged that while acting within the scope of his employment on or about March 22, 1946, he suffered bodily injuries when he was run into and struck by a truck, and that as a result of the injuries he became totally or, in the alternative, partially disabled, as those terms are [324]*324defined in the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Texas. His claim was filed with the Industrial Accident Board, and that Board in November, 1946, made an award. Within the time allowed by the statute, the plaintiff filed notice of dissatisfaction with the award, and within the statutory time filed this suit. The wage rate upon which compensation was allegedly due him is set up in his petition in this language:

“For substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding his injuries the plaintiff worked in the employment in which he was working at the time of his injuries, and during the days when so employed earned an average weekly wage of $75.00 per week.
“In the alternative, if the plaintiff did not work in such employment for substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding his injuries, he'shows that employees of his class at the time of his injuries had worked in such employment for substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding his injuries, in the same or similar employment, in the same or a neighboring place, and that during the days when so employed earned the average weekly wage of $75.00 per week.
“Further in the alternative, the plaintiff shows that because of the shortness of the time of his employment and because of the shortness of time of the employment of other employees in his class, during the year immediately preceding his injuries, and for other good and sufficient reasons it is impracticable to compute his wage rate under the two methods alleged above and that it would be just and fair to the plaintiff and to the defendant, therefore, to calculate his compensation rate by the wage which he was earning at the time of his injuries, to-wit, on the basis of an average weekly wage of $75.00 per week.”

The alternate allegations are based upon subsections 1, 2, and 3 of Section 1, Article 8309, R. C. S., 1925, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. Tex. art. 8309, § 1, subds. 1-3, a part of the Workmen’s Compensation Law. The subsections provide:

“ ‘Average weekly wages’ shall mean:
“1. If the injured employee shall have worked in the employment in which he was working at the time of the injury, whether for the same employer or not, substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding the injury, his average annual wages shall consist of three hundred times the average daily wage or salary which he shall have earned in such employment during the days when so employed.
“2. If the injured employee shall not have worked in such employment during substantially the whole of the year, his average annual wages shall consist of three hundred times the average daily wage or salary which an employee of the same class working substantially the whole of such immediately preceding year in the same or in a similar employment in the same or a neighboring place, shall have earned in such employment during the days when so employed.
“3. When by reason of the shortness of the time of the employment of the employee, or other employee engaged in the same class of work in the manner and for the length of time specified in the above Subsections 1 and 2, or other good and sufficient reasons it is impracticable to compute the average weekly wages as above defined, it shall be computed by the Board in any manner which may seem just and fair to both parties.”

Plaintiff’s testimony and that of his fellow workmen showed that he had not been employed for 300 days in the work that he was doing prior to his injury; that at most he was employed about 225 days. The evidence also showed that no fellow servant or workman of the same class had been employed as much as 300 days, but that the average employment for a year on the part of such workmen was, as in the case of plaintiff, about 225 days. The plaintiff testified that he earned $1.05 an hour for the first 40 hours of each week, and for the next 8 hours he received time-and-a-half. At the time of his injury he was on a straight daily basis of pay of $8 per day. The case was submitted to the jury on special issues. Those pertinent here, with the answers thereto, are as follows:

“Special Issue No. 16.
“Did Alvin Charles McGowan work substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding March 22, 1946, in the [325]*325employment in which he was working at such time?
“Answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
“By ‘substantially the whole of the year’ is meant 300 days or close to or near 300 days.
“Answer: Yes.
“If you have answered the preceding Special Issue No. 16 ‘yes’ and only in that event, then answer:
“Special Issue No. 17.
“What was the average weekly wage earned by Alvin Charles McGowan in such employment during the year preceding March 22, 1946?
“Answer by stating the amount in dollars and cents.
“Answer: $71.40 per week.
“Special Issue No. 18.
“Was there any other employee of the same class as Alvin Charles McGowan who worked substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding March 22, 1946, in the same or similar employment in the same or neighboring place?
“Answer ‘yes’ or ‘no.’
“By ‘substantially the whole of the year’ is meant 300 days or close to or near to 300 days.
“Answer: Yes.
“If you have answered the preceding Special Issue No. 18 ‘yes’ and only in that event, then answer:
“Special Issue No. 19.
“What was the average weekly wage earned by such other employee during the year immediately preceding March 22, 1946?
“Answer by stating the amount in dollars and cents.
“Answer: $71.40 per week.
“Special Issue No. 20.
“What average weekly wage would be fair and just to the plaintiff, Alvin Charles McGowan, and the defendant, Anchor Casualty Company, to be used as a basis for calculating the compensation benefits, if any due to the said plaintiff?
“Answer by stating the amount in dollars and cents.
“Answer: $56.00.”

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168 F.2d 323, 1948 U.S. App. LEXIS 2048, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/anchor-casualty-co-v-mcgowan-ca5-1948.