Bonilla v. Industrial Commission

63 P.R. 566
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedMay 5, 1944
DocketNo. 277
StatusPublished

This text of 63 P.R. 566 (Bonilla v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bonilla v. Industrial Commission, 63 P.R. 566 (prsupreme 1944).

Opinion

Mr. Chief Justice -Travieso

delivered the opinion of the court.

The petitioner was, at the time of the accident for which h,e seeks compensation, a policeman rendering service in the city of Mayagiiez.

In the petition for review filed in this court, the pet!-' tioner alleges that in the discharge of his duties and while performing acts inherent to the same, that is, running after some men who were disturbing the peace, he fell “to the ground hitting the same with his buttocks as if he had been seated down violently, and getting in his left eye a foreign body such as mud, dust or earth, considering the irritation [567]*567it caused.” He further alleges that in the employer’s report filed pursuant to the Workmen’s Compensation Act, said fall was not mentioned, since apparently it did not seem to* have been of any consequence, and that he, a layman, was unaware that it could affect the eye. That after petitioner had undergone treatment and an examination hy the physician of the State Insurance Fund, it was found that he had suffered a detachment of the retina of the left eye, losing vision of that eye.

The State Insurance Fund, relying on the medical report of Dr. Cuello, the eye specialist who had examined the petitioner, decided the case hy holding that the detachment of the retina had not been caused hy any labor accident. Petitioner appealed from said decision to the Industrial Commission, which, after hearing both parties, rendered a decision on July 15, 1943, upholding the decision of the State Insurance Fund. Petitioner sought a reconsideration of said decision, but the commission denied the same on August 6, 1943. Thereupon the injured man brought the present appeal praying for a review of the decision rendered by the commission and in support of his petition he assigns ten errors in his brief. Since they are all connected with the weighing of the evidence, we shall discuss them jointly.

The only controversy involved herein is whether the Industrial Commission erred in the weighing of the evidence which consisted of expert testimony. There is no conflict in the evidence. The facts, in brief, are as follows:

Insular Policeman Angel Samuel Bonilla was rendering services within the “boundary of Buena Vista” in the city of Mayagfiez, on the night of December 16, 1939. About ten or eleven o’clock-that night and while he served “with policeman Norberto Toro in pursuit of some serenaders,” he slipped and fell, due to'the rain, thereby soiling his clothes, for which reason he had to go to his home and change. Af[568]*568ter this, he continued'rendering service and about two-hours after the accident, he began to feel an irritation in his left eye, as if it burned, and felt a pain on the “bone of the eye” (sic), but he attributed this to “probably some dust from the street.” That night, about two o’clock,- and since the irritation continued, he returned to headquarters and reported his condition, being then released from service that night. Later he went to Dr. Perea of Mayagüez, who, after an examination, sent him to Ponce, to Dr. Leovigildo Cuello, an eye specialist. Upon being examined, the latter, asked him if he had suffered any accident or traumatism of any bind, or an injury in the eye, to which the injured laborer answered in the negative.' As ■ Dr. Cuello did not find* any foreign body in the eye, nor an irritation or inflammation, he diagnosed “detachment of the retine of the left eye.”

The State Insurance Fund, relying on this diagnosis, rendered a decision on January 2, 1940, denying the compensation on the ground that the injury sustained by Policeman Bonilla was not of the kind compensable under Act No. 45 of April 15, 1935, as occupational diseases, and neither was it a labor accident, since there was no causal connection between the alleged accident (introduction of a foreign body in the eye) and the detachment of the retina.

In his appeal before the Industrial Commission the petitioner described the accident as follows:

“While I was on duty within the demarcation ‘Buena Vista’ of Mayagüez, P. B., at night, at 2:00 a. m., I felt a strong irritation in the eye and I could not see clearly, which was probably due to some dust from the street that fell in my eye.” He further stated that: “At present I am under treatment of Dres. Fernández, of San Juan, P. R.” and added that he felt aggrieved.by the decision of the Manager, of the State Insurance Fund: “Because I believe that the condition of my left eye has the relation of cause and effect with the work I was performing at said hour, about which [569]*569I shall testify at the hearing, and, therefore, treatment and compensation should be granted.”

Neither in the employer’s report nor in the appeal filed in the Industrial Commission by policeman Bonilla, was' there any mention made at any time, of the fall he had sustained while in the pursuit of some serenaders. Not until March 26, 1941, at the public hearing before the President of the Industrial Commission, Mr. Manuel León Parra, did petitioner’s attorney allege for the first time that the detachment of the retina was due to the accident that Bonilla sustained before feeling any pain in his left eye.

At the hearing Dr. Leovigildo Cuello and Dr. M. A. Ma-riani testified, the former as medical expert of the State Insurance Fund and the latter for the Industrial Commission.

Dr. Cuello’s testimony may be summed up thus:

On December 20, 1939, Bonilla’s case was referred to him by Dr. Perea of Mayagiiez, as having suffered “an accident in the left eye” on December 16 of the same year; that he examind him on December 20; that he confined him in the Hospital de Damas to examine him again and left him under observation until December 21. That Bonilla gave him the employer’s report and stated that when he was on service in a particular ward of Mayagiiez he had felt a pain and and a strong irritation in his left eye but believed that some sand had fallen in his eye. That he examined him and did not find any foreign body nor any trace of irritation in the eye, but upon examining the back part of the eye ball he realized that there was a detachment of the retina without other injuries to the eye.

Dr. Cuello also explained that detachment of the retina may be due to two causes:

1. Secondary detachment which is due to a previous pathological condition of the eye, such ás a tumor of the choroid or an injury to the head, and that myopia may also produce retinal detachment. Besides in elderly people, due to “a [570]*570certain pathological condition inside the eye” retinal detachment may result, as well as from certain lesions of the retina itself, such as tuberculosis, syphilis, and any other infection or condition.

2. Idiopathic or primary detachment of the retina, -which means that the retina becomes detached without any pathology being demonstrable previous to or subsequent to the detachment.

He further testified that besides those two causes it has been noted that detachment of the retina may result from direct traumatism on the eye “and it has been cited an exaggerated to such an extent as to the cause ’ ’ that it has even been said that the detachment of the retina may be caused by a sudden jerk of the head or an injury on the skull. Dr.

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63 P.R. 566, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bonilla-v-industrial-commission-prsupreme-1944.