Associated Indemnity Corp. v. Industrial Accident Commission

62 P.2d 391, 17 Cal. App. 2d 510, 1936 Cal. App. LEXIS 605
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 14, 1936
DocketCiv. No. 5729
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 62 P.2d 391 (Associated Indemnity Corp. v. Industrial Accident Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Associated Indemnity Corp. v. Industrial Accident Commission, 62 P.2d 391, 17 Cal. App. 2d 510, 1936 Cal. App. LEXIS 605 (Cal. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

THOMPSON, J.

This is a petition for a writ of certiorari to review an order of the Industrial Accident Com[511]*511mission refusing to reopen an award of compensation for the death of a mechanic as a result of injuries sustained in the course of his employment. The petition to reopen the cause was made under the provisions of section 20 (d) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act. (Stats. 1917, p. 831, and amendments, Deering’s Gen. Laws of 1931, p. 2272, Act 4749.)

It is contended the findings are not supported by the evidence ; that the commission abused its discretion in denying the petition to reopen the award; that the award was procured by fraud, and that the petitioner is entitled to have the cause reopened to permit the introduction of newly discovered evidence in the character of a statement alleged to have been made by the deceased while he was a patient in the hospital, which report was fraudulently concealed and which the petitioner, after the exercise of due diligence was unable to procure or present at the original hearing of the cause.

September 8, 1933, Ralph Bertren Herbert was employed at Camp Lasco as a mechanic on a caterpillar tractor used in the business of logging, by the Lassen Lumber & Box Company. The petitioner was the insurer of the company. It was a cold morning. The metal guard of the machine was frosted and slippery. In attempting to pour water into the radiator of the tractor on the last-mentioned date the employee slipped and fell, injuring his left thigh and the calf of his leg adjacent to his left shin. He exhibited the injury and complained of the pain as a result thereof to other persons. He limped about for several days in an effort to perform his duties, apparently suffering greatly on that account. He and his wife consulted Dr. Martin, the company physician at Susanville’ Mrs. Herbert testified in that regard: “We both saw Dr. Martin on the 9th. ... We went first to find him and he wasn’t in his office, and we borrowed a conveyance to get into town. . . . He said, oh, it was only discoloration from a bruise. ... We did what Dr. Martin told us to do up until he took sick on the third day of November. . . . Dr. Martin ordered me to give hot water and epsom salts.” March 9, 1934, Mr. Herbert was still suffering from that injury and he visited Dr. Primasing of Courtland, who testified that the deceased [512]*512came to him with a badly infected limb, and told him “that he had been injured while working at the logging camp”. The infection developed. The limb became badly swollen and very painful. His temperature was 102 or 103. The calf of the injured limb was inflamed with a granulated appearance down to the ankle. The tissue was a dull red color. There was a discharge from both sides of the knee and from the thigh. A blood count and X-ray. pictures were taken. He was conveyed to the Sacramento Hospital. When he was told it was necessary to engraft skin over the impaired area, he left the hospital. He was soon returned to another Sacramento hospital for treatment. The injured limb appeared to have developed virulent streptococcus. It was followed by erysipelas. The germs of disease were apparently conveyed through the medium of the injured leg to the blood-stream and impaired the tissue, the bone and the internal organs. The limb became gangrenous. Blood poisoning followed, and he died as a result thereof on March 28, 1934.

The widow and minor children of the deceased filed a claim for compensation with the Industrial Accident Commission. After an elaborate hearing, the commission found that Ralph Bertren Herbert died as a result of a contused left thigh and calf and from an abrased left shin, received by a fall against the guard of a tractor in the course of his employment with the Lassen Lumber & Box Company, of which corporation the petitioner in this proceeding is the insurer. An award of damages was made to the widow and children of the deceased. The amount of the award is not challenged. This petitioner subsequently moved to reopen the award under the provisions of section 20 (d) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act chiefly because of the discovery of new evidence consisting of the hospital record of the patient’s statement, which statement, it is alleged, was fraudulently suppressed by those in charge of the hospital. This statement, which was contained in the hospital records of the ease, was prepared by an attending physician of the hospital and was not signed by the patient. It contains the statement that the patient “suffered small skin abrasion in region of left knee about 2 weeks • ago while repairing an old house”. No other cause of injury is stated in that report. In the petition to reopen the cause it was alleged [513]*513the insurance company was unable, after the exercise of clue diligence, to procure this hospital record at the time of the original hearing. It could not be found. It was asserted this record was fraudulently concealed. It was later discovered in the custody of the hospital. Based upon that record and the alleged fraud in concealing it, the petition for a rehearing was made. It was denied. The petitioner now seeks to review that order on. the ground that it constituted an abuse of discretion on the part of the commission to deny the rehearing.

While there is a conflict of evidence regarding the cause of the injury which resulted in the death of Ralph Bertren Herbert, there is ample evidence to support the findings of the commission and the award of damages, and this court is bound by those findings. In the case of Ethel D. Co. v. Industrial Acc. Com., 219 Cal. 699, 706 [28 Pac. (2d) 919], it is said:

“The findings themselves are not subject to review except in so far as they may have been made without any evidence whatever in their support. Even then a review of the findings is based upon the theory that the commission had no jurisdiction to make a finding entirely unsupported by evidence rather than upon the theory usually presented upon appeals that findings of a trial court are lacking in sufficient evidentiary support which imposes upon the reviewing tribunal the duty of weighing evidence to arrive at a' determination of that proposition.”

There is no adequate proof that the award was procured by fraud in concealing the hospital record of the history of the ease which contained an adverse statement regarding the cause of the accident which resulted in the death of Mr. Herbert.

It does appear that the hospital statement did recite that the patient “suffered small skin abrasion in region of left knee about 2 weeks ago while repairing an old house”. This is in conflict with the finding of the commission to the effect that the injury was sustained by deceased in falling from the tractor while in the course of his employment with the Lassen Lumber & Box Company. It is also true that the hospital statement was not available to this petitioner at the original hearing. The evidence indicates [514]*514that the record was merely misplaced by the hospital authorities.

Mrs. Herbert also testified that her husband was taken to the hospital in an ambulance in a semi-conscious condition which rendered him unable to understand or intelligently answer questions. She flatly and repeatedly denied that he was injured while repairing a house. She declared that he did not assist in repairing a house shortly before he was taken to the hospital or at all. She positively asserted that he was injured while he was working on a tractor for the Lassen Lumber & Box Company.

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Bluebook (online)
62 P.2d 391, 17 Cal. App. 2d 510, 1936 Cal. App. LEXIS 605, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/associated-indemnity-corp-v-industrial-accident-commission-calctapp-1936.