Black v. Louisiana Cent. Lumber Co.

109 So. 538, 161 La. 889, 1926 La. LEXIS 2146
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 31, 1926
DocketNo. 27743.
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 109 So. 538 (Black v. Louisiana Cent. Lumber Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Black v. Louisiana Cent. Lumber Co., 109 So. 538, 161 La. 889, 1926 La. LEXIS 2146 (La. 1926).

Opinion

O’NIELL, C. J.

This is a suit for compensation under tlie Employers’ Liability Act, being the Act 20 of 1914, as amended by Act 243 of 1916, Act 38 of 1918, Act 247 of 1920, and Act 43 of 1922. The Act 216 of 1924, which is the latest amendment of the statute, is not applicable, because the cause of action arose before this amendment went into effect.

. The plaintiff was employed as conductor on a logging train of the defendant lumber company, and, while he was engaged in roupling cars, his right hand was caught between the drawheads and injured. The in *891 jury disabled him for work of any reasonable character for several weeks, and the company paid him compensation at the rate of $18 a week for 19 weeks; after which the company, averring that he was able to resume his work, offered to reinstate him in his former employment at the same wages. He replied that his injured hand was yet useless, and that the work of a conductor on a log train, which required his doing the work of a brakeman at times, was too dangerous for a man having the use of only one hand. The company, insisting that he had recovered from the injury, refused to continue paying compensation; hence this suit.

The plaintiff, averring that his wages amounted to $42 a week at the time of the accident, and that he was not able to earn more than $10 or $12 a week afterwards, sued for 60 per cent, of the difference between the wage-earning capacity before and after the accident, or for $18 a week, being the maximum compensation allowed by the statute, during the period of disability, not beyond 300 weeks. The defendant, answering the suit, admitted that the accident had occurred as alleged, but denied that it had produced any serious permanent injury or disability for work, and averred that the plaintiff’s wages were only $34.92 a week at the time of the accident, and that he had recovered completely his wage-earning capacity when the company quit paying compensation, after paying for 19 weeks.

Five surgeons, who examined the plaintiff’s hand with the X-ray and other apparatus, testified in the ease, two for the plaintiff and three for the defendant, besides which, the plaintiff exhibited his hand in court and demonstrated its weakness, deformity, and want of flection of the fingers. The district judge found that the middle or second finger was badly deformed, and could not be extended straight or bent inward to the palm of the hand; that the third finger and little finger were also lacking in flection towards the palm of the hand; and that there might be also injury in the metacarpus. Two of the surgeons testified that the injured hand remained cold and flabby and disposed to sweat, because of injury to the nerves. There was also a lack of strength in the grip. All of the surgeons agreed that the middle finger, having been fractured, remained bent sideways, the bend being in the phalanx next to the hand. That finger had lost so much of its flection that it could not be extended straight outward, or bent inward to within an inch of the palm of the hand. The other fingers could be extended straight outward but not bent inward to within half an inch of the palm of the hand. There is no doubt that the injury produced a partial disability to do the work of a railroad trainman, or “work of any reasonable character,” as the statute says. The only question that the district judge had to decide was the extent of the disability at the time of the trial. The plaintiff claimed compensation at the rate of 60 per cent, of the difference between the wages that he was earning at the time of the accident and the wages that he was able to earn afterwards. He claimed compensation, therefore, under subsection (e) of section 8 of the Act 43 of 1922, viz.:

“(c) For injury producing partial disability to do work of 'any reasonable character, sixty per centum of the difference between wages at the time of injury and wages which the injured employee is able to earn thereafter during the period of disability, not, however, beyond three hundred weeks.”

The district judge allowed compensation at the rate of $18 a week for 100 weeks, under subsection (e) of section 8 of the. statute, which subsection provides:

“(e) In cases not falling within any of the provisions already made, where the employee is seriously permanently disfigured about the face or head, or where the usefulness of a member of any physical function is seriously permanently impaired, the court may allow such com *893 pensation as is reasonable in proportion to the compensation hereinabove specifically provided in the cases of specific disability above named, not to exceed sixty per centum of wages during one hundred weeks.”

Both parties appealed from the judgment to the Court of Appeal for the Second Circuit ; both parties insisting that the case was governed by subsection (c), and not by subsection (e), of section 8 of the statute. The Court of Appeal agreed with the district judge that the plaintiff was entitled to recover under subsection (e), and affirmed the judgment.

We issued a writ of review, at the instance of the defendant, because the ruling that the case was governed by subs.ection (e) of section 8 of the statute seemed to conflict with the settled jurisprudence on the subject, and with the language of the statute itself. The learned counsel for the defendant concede that the plaintiff was entitled to recover under subsection (c) 60 per cent, of the difference between the wages that he was earning at the time of the accident and the wages that he was able to earn afterwards, during the period of disability, not to exceed 300 weeks; but the learned counsel contend that the period of disability did not extend beyond the 19 weeks, for which the compensation was paid. The plaintiff did not apply for a writ of review, but his learned counsel also insists in his brief that the case is governed, not by subsection (e) but by subsection (c), and that the plaintiff should recover, not 60 per cent, of his wages for 100 weeks, but 60 per cent, of the difference between the wages which he was earning at the time of the accident and the wages which he was able to earn afterwards, during the period of disability, not exceeding 300 weeks. He contends that the difference in wage-earning capacity before and after the accident was at least $30 a week, and that the plaintiff is therefore entitled to the maximum allowance of $18 a week during the period of disability, not beyond 300 weeks.

.The record shows that plaintiff’s wages averaged $36 a week at the time of the accident. He was receiving 48% cents an hour, working 12 hours a day and 6 days in the week, and working occasionally on Sundays. After the accident, he was not able to earn more than $10 a week. He earned the $10 a week hauling wood for a stave mill. The difference between the weekly wages that he earned at the time of the accident and the weekly wages that he was able to earn after-wards was therefore $26, 60 per cent, of which is $15.60.

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Bluebook (online)
109 So. 538, 161 La. 889, 1926 La. LEXIS 2146, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/black-v-louisiana-cent-lumber-co-la-1926.