Charter Oak Fire Insurance Co. v. Levine

736 S.W.2d 927
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedSeptember 3, 1987
DocketNo. 09-86-248 CV
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 736 S.W.2d 927 (Charter Oak Fire Insurance Co. v. Levine) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Charter Oak Fire Insurance Co. v. Levine, 736 S.W.2d 927 (Tex. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

OPINION

BROOKSHIRE, Justice.

Worker’s compensation case. Appellant pleaded a general injury. In a juried pro-[929]*929eeeding, a verdict was returned finding that the Appellee received an injury in the course of his employment on or about April 11, 1984, and that the injury was a producing cause of his total and permanent incapacity. The verdict determined that the Appellee’s incapacity began on April 11, 1984, and would not end until year “2008”. The verdict found that weekly installment payments, instead of a lump sum, would result in manifest hardship and injury to Levine.

The carrier, in its first two points of error, argues that Charter Oak conclusively established that Appellee was not totally and permanently disabled and that there was no evidence from which the jury could determine that Appellee was totally and permanently disabled. Further, in Point of Error Three, it was argued that the evidence was insufficient to sustain the jury’s total and permanent incapacity finding. Admittedly, the evidence and testimony are conflicting on the incapacity issue.

BACKGROUND TESTIMONY OF LEVINE

The worker testified at trial that his back was still bothering him in the center part almost every time he bent down or knelt down or if he climbed or picked up a heavy object. He testified that other people helped him do his work. He named three other members of his union who were helping him. The worker also said that he was presently seeing a Dr. Moore at time of trial. Dr. Moore was prescribing physical therapy. Dr. Moore had prescribed medication. The physical therapy was described as a massage of muscles with electrical machines. Weights were also used to pull on the back. Appellee described this as traction.

The Appellee complained that he could not rest at night, that he was still under medication, and that he wore a back brace. The Appellee stated that he had worn a back brace for about three months and that he was presently wearing it at trial. Dr. Moore had prescribed the back brace in order to support the lower portion of his back.

The worker further swore that, from the time that he first received an injury in 1984, until the trial date, his medical problems and their sequelae, were basically the same. He stated that he had returned to work because he had to make a living to support his family, having 3 daughters, ages 10, 13 and 6, that actually lived with him. He said he supported them and that he had to work.

He admitted that, when he was injured, he was receiving $14.64 an hour under a union contract and that he was still making $14.64 under the collective bargaining agreement. He stated that all the pipefit-ters or classification of workers received the same amount of hourly wage under the collective bargaining agreement between the company and the local union. He stated that he did not have any special kind of skill or special type of training in a particular area. He stated that he was a pipefit-ter and that the rate of unemployment for them in Jefferson County was high. He also stated that it was pretty rough to get a job as a pipefitter.

Several doctors saw the Appellee and two of them released him for full duty and the third one released him to return to work. He had seen Dr. Haig, a specialist in Port Arthur, who released him after about a week, following his injury, to full duties. He saw Dr. Haig one time. He also saw a Dr. Meho, a physician on the job at Gulf. Appellee admitted that he had voluntarily worked overtime since the accident.

Dr. Moore had been recommended to him by his own attorney. He had also seen a Dr. Fukuda, who had sent him back to full duty. He had seen a Dr. Beck, who had sent him back to full duty. A Dr. Ratnara-jah had seen him. This last doctor had released Levine to full duty.

As a part of the cross-examination, Ap-pellee stated he was not working the same job as he had been working at the time of [930]*930the accident. He said he was still working as a pipefitter and that he was performing, generally, the same duties as he had performed before the accident. His answer to that inquiry (was he doing the same duties he did before the injury) was:

“A Yes, more or less.”

He stated that he could perform most of the duties of his job.

Upon cross-examination, when reading from Levine’s deposition, this question was asked:

“Q. (Reading) ‘Q. Is there any part of your duties now that you just cannot do, or is it a case where you can do them and it just hurts?’
“A. (Reading) ‘A. It just hurts when I do them.’
“Q. (Reading) ‘Q. But you can do the usual tasks of your job; you are just doing them hurts?’
“A. (Reading) ‘Yes.’ ” (Emphasis added)

Levine also testified that there had been layoffs at his plant in the past few years and that Gulf, his employer, did require employees to have a pre-employment physical examination. After the deposition questions and answers were offered, Levine later, on redirect, maintained and repeated that he was on the job because he needed the job and the wages to support his family and that his back still bothered him tremendously and there were many times that he could not sleep at night.

TESTIMONY OF DR. MOORE

Dr. M.J. Moore, a physician and orthopedic surgeon, testified that the Appellee had stated that he could do intermittent light duty but that heavy lifting, bending, stooping, pushing or pulling, made his condition worse. Dr. Moore said he had seen the patient about 15 times. Dr. Moore recited from the history given that Levine was helping to guide a heavy pipe that was being lifted by a crane into position and the pipe slipped as he had a hold of it. Levine was pulled and jerked forward and he said he developed pain across the middle and lower portions of the back, which he reported to the first aid station forthwith. Levine also complained of intermittent, severe bouts of pain located below the right shoulder blade that radiated from a position near the base of his neck and, on occasion, the pain would radiate down into his lower back. This doctor basically found what he termed as myofascial pain syndrome which he described as an abnormality of the soft tissues of the body and that this pain was located in the midthora-cic spine. The doctor said this type of pain was subjective as distinguished from an objective finding. Dr. Moore found scoliosis which he defined as a deviation from a normal configuration of the spine, either to the right or to the left of the spine.

THE “NO EVIDENCE” POINT

There was other conflicting medical testimony. It would unjustifiably lengthen this opinion to summarize all of it. After reading, reviewing and analyzing the entire record in the case, we conclude there is some evidence of probative force to support the jury’s findings of total and permanent incapacity. The jury found that Levine could not do the usual tasks of a worker in order to get and retain a job. The general, cogent thrust of the carrier’s questions on incapacity dealt with pipefitters’ duties. But total incapacity was defined by the court as follows:

“ ‘TOTAL INCAPACITY’ does not imply absolute inability to perform any kind of labor, but means that one is disabled from performing the usual tasks of a worker, not merely the

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