Cardona Velázquez v. Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico

90 P.R. 253
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedApril 10, 1964
DocketNo. CI-63-13
StatusPublished

This text of 90 P.R. 253 (Cardona Velázquez v. Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico) 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
Cardona Velázquez v. Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico, 90 P.R. 253 (prsupreme 1964).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Hernández Matos

delivered the opinion of the Court.

On April 30, 1961, the employer, Compañía Azucarera del Camuy, employed Ulpiano Cardona Velázquez, as a solderer, and Manuel Rodriguez, as control analyst, in its Central Rio Llano.

On that date, during working hours and within the factory itself, those two employees engaged in a fight, assaulting and striking each other, and both were injured. The employer sent the State Insurance Fund a report concerning the injuries received by Ulpiano Cardona Velázquez only. In the investigation undertaken by said entity on June 21, 1962, sworn statements were obtained from workmen Leo-nides Vélez González and Víctor J. Rodríguez. The former testified before investigator Anselmo Irizarry, among other things, the following:

“That day I was in the laboratory; I saw when Lito (Manuel Rodríguez) and Ulpiano had a fight. Ulpiano assaulted and struck Lito; then Lito grabbed a glass tube and attacked Ul-piano and they kept on fighting.”

Insofar as pertinent, the testimony of Víctor J. Rodriguez, as disclosed by the original record, reads:

[255]*255“What do you know in connection, with something that allegedly took place between Manuel Rodríguez, and Ulpiano Cardona ?
—They had a personal encounter, about union affairs; then, Ulpiano went to the laboratory and attacked Manuel Rodriguez-. He had no business going into the laboratory because he is a solderer; Manuel Rodriguez, upon being attacked, repelled the assault, and he kept on striking him until we had to separate them; the fight was uneven, because Ulpiano was much bigger than Manuel; during the fight they were both cut with a glass tube.
What kind of a person is this Ulpiano Cardona?
—No workman wants him here, because he is not a good fellow employee.
Who started the aggression?
—I saw Ulpiano strike Manuel Rodriguez first with his fist and Rodriguez retaliated with a tube.”

On August 21, 1962, the Manager of the State Insurance Fund held that the workman, Ulpiano Cardona Velázquez, “suffered no labor accident” and closed and dismissed the case. The workman appealed from this decision to the Industrial Commission of Puerto Rico.

On the following October 29 a public hearing of the case was held before Commissioner Manuel de Jesús Mangual. The workman was then asked whether he had witnesses and he answered: “They are the same witnesses as the State Fund’s.” Tr. 1. That is, the witnesses who had testified before investigator Irizarry.

The account given by the workman Ulpiano Cardona Velázquez at the aforesaid public hearing, concerning the quarrel in which he was injured, is the following:

“Yes, and I called his (Manuel Rodriguez’) attention and I told him: ‘Stop that, because that will result in ill feelings among fellow employees.’ And he told me: T put it there and I will hit anyone who removes it with this tube.’ He had a glass tube in his hand and he struck me.” Tr. 4.

[256]*256Manuel Rodríguez’, the analyst, is as follows:

“He (Ulpiano Cardona) asked me who had authorized me to post certain caricatures in the Bulletin Board. Then, before I had answered and without finishing my sentence, he swung backwards and struck me with his fist.
“He went to provoke me. He is an instrument of the Central and I, of the workmen. He is such an instrument of the Central that the Central fired me and they let him stay. They refused to give me the necessary blanks for treatment and I was told that it had been a fight and not a matter for the Fund. They would not sent me to the clinic for X-rays.” Tr. 7.

It is an interesting fact with respect to the other witnesses with whom the Fund intended to establish that Ul-piano Cardona had started and provoked the fight and the one who had struck the first blow, that Leonides Vélez Gon-zález, who, as we have previously seen, had testified under oath that Cardona “assaulted and struck Lito (Manuel Rodríguez), and then Lito grabbed a glass tube and attacked Ulpiano . . . .” fundamentally changed that statement at the hearing and testified there that it was Manuel Rodriguez who first struck Ulpiano “with a tube on the head.” Tr. 9. Víctor J. Rodriguez, who also testified in the preliminary investigation, did not appear at the hearing, despite the fact that he was expected to appear, and finally, a witness, Alejandro Costa Zayas, testified: “. . . I did not see anything, I was not there.” Tr. 11.

Those two contradictory, irreconcilable versions stood face to face with respect to the basic fact of who had struck the first blow in the fight.1 A majority of the Commission [257]*257gave full credit to Manuel Rodriguez’ version. On November 5, 1962, the Industrial Commission, by a majority, entered an order dismissing the appeal taken by the workman and affirming the decision of the Manager refusing him the benefits provided by law. In said order there is a faithful and complete summary of all the testimonies given during the hearing and not even the slightest mention or reference is made therein as to the statements made during the preliminary investigation above-mentioned.

We consider that the following basic finding of the Commission is correct and supported by the evidence believed by a majority of its members:

“All the evidence heard by us, as well as the observations of the undersigned as to petitioner’s behavior and attitude during the public hearing and also the physical aspect, led the trier’s mind to the conviction that Ulpiano Cardona Velázquez was the aggressor in this case.” (Italics ours.)

The distinguished President of the Commission dissented. In her dissenting vote she holds, among other things, that the workman should have received compensation and that “in the case under our consideration, even if the workman were deemed to have been the aggressor, nevertheless, the reason for the aggression arose in the course of said work and as a consequence thereof and as a function inherent therein.”

The workman moved for reconsideration “on the grounds contained in the Dissenting Vote . . .” By a majority order, the Commission denied reconsideration on February 26, 1963, its President again dissenting.

In part, the majority order states:

“The cases cited in the dissenting vote are distinguishable from this case, because the facts on which our order is based [258]*258are different. Each case must be decided on the basis of its own merits. The fact that the participants in a fight are acquitted or found guilty is not an element to be taken into consideration for a case to be compensable under the current law governing this matter. The Commission did not decide this case on the basis of the criminal intent, but taking into consideration all the circumstances and, mainly, that the fight was begun and provoked by the allegedly injured man. Furthermore, in order that an accident be compensable, pursuant to Law, three requisites must be complied with, to wit, the injury must:
“(a) be the result of any act or function inherent in the work,

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Bluebook (online)
90 P.R. 253, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cardona-velazquez-v-industrial-commission-of-puerto-rico-prsupreme-1964.