Chavarria v. Industrial Commission

409 P.2d 26, 99 Ariz. 315, 1965 Ariz. LEXIS 346
Arizona Supreme Court·Decided December 23, 1965·No. No. 8525·Published·Cited by 11 cases

Opinion

STRUCKMEYER, Vice Chief Justice.

Manuel G. Chavarria, by certiorari, seeks in this Court to set aside an award of the Industrial Commission of Arizona based on these facts.

On May 21, 1960, petitioner suffered an injury to his right foot, arising out of and in the course of his employment with the Pima Mining Company, defendant-employer. The injury involved fractures of the cuboid and osteocuboid bones of the right foot with dislocation of the right fourth and fifth metatarsal phalangeal joints. On July 6, 1961, the Commission found that petitioner’s condition was stationary and made an award of permanent partial disability based on five per cent loss of function of the right leg. Petitioner protested the award and on April 6, 1962, the Commission affirmed its previous findings and award.

' On August 31, 1962, petitioner filed a petition to reopen, asserting a new and additional .disability. A Psychiatric Advisory Board was called, which, after examination of petitioner, found that his asr serted psychoneurotic disabilities were based upon an inadequate personality and recommended that his case be closed._ On January 8, 1963, petitioner’s petition to reopen was denied. To that, petitioner filed a protest and petition for rehearing. On May 10, 1963, a hearing was had, at which petitioner’s expert medical witness, Dr. Lindsay E. Beaton, a qualified physician practicing in psychiatry and neurology, testified that petitioner had a “psychological illness” in which his anxieties about himself were converted into physical symptoms ; that petitioner felt that his leg was seriously injured and that he would not be able to return to work; that “his own anxiety, his own hypochondriacal conviction about his disability in essence keeps him from returning to work.”

On July 19, 1963, the Commission made the following findings of fact:

“1. That applicant has sustained new, additional or previously undiscovered disability attributable to injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment * * *.
“2. That applicant is entitled to accident benefits and compensation, if indicated, from and after September 13, 1962, until further order of this Commission.” (Emphasis supplied.)

and awarded:

“1. Accident benefits and compensation, if indicated, from and after September 13, 1962, until further order of this Commission.” (Emphasis supplied.)

[318] This award was not protested and became final. It constituted an adjudication that petitioner suffered a conversion hysteria as the result of the accident of May 21, 1960, since the only new additional or previously undiscovered disability which had not been previously passed on by the Commission prior to the May 10, 1963, hearing was petitioner’s psychoneurotic condition. The award, itself, is obviously conditional, being an award of accident benefits and compensation, “if indicated,” “until further order of the Commission.” Undoubtedly the Commission accepted the view that psychiatric disorders are not necessarily permanent, leaving the door open for further evaluation of petitioner’s case.

Approximately six months later, on January 17, 1964, petitioner was re-examined by the Commission’s Psychiatric Advisory Board. The Board’s conclusions were:

“The patient’s anxiety state, with its nervous accompaniments, is explicable on the basis of conscious and unconscious guilt. The guilt is not due to the foot injury. It is due to the fact that he has exploited a relatively minor disability to rationalize his withdrawal from competition and to seek more dependency and more compensation than his physical disability really warrants.
* * * * * *
“The patient is rather obviously not totally disabled from psychiatric or any other standpoint. He is ambulatory. He drives a motor vehicle. He undergoes and reacts to this examination with sustained composure. He carries on the every day activities of living in apparently competent fashion.
* * * * * *
“It has been previously emphasized that it would be in the patient’s best interest, both physically and psychologically, to return to gainful occupation. Refusal to do so will, in our opinion, be attributable to the patient’s basis [sic] inadequacy and current unwillingness. Further medical attention or treatment and further compensation will only serve to re-inforce [sic] and perpetuate the patient’s dependency.”

This resulted, on February 17, 1964, in a classification by the Commission of petitioner’s condition as stationary with no greater disability, physical or mental, than that found under the provisions of the award on April 6, 1962.

Petitioner duly protested and a hearing was held in Tucson, Arizona, on June 8, 1964, at which Dr. Lindsay E. Beaton again testified that petitioner was totally disabled, “primarily due to psychiatric disease” and that this psychiatric disease was a conversion reaction and a hypochondriacal reaction. In response to the question of whether appellant was consciously malingering, Dr. Beaton stated, “I do not believe there is any malingering in Mr. Chavarria.”

[319] He identified malingering as the conscious production of symptoms. He stated in response to the question of whether there “should be some potential in this man”:

“Physically, I am sure there are many things, but his own attitude is that he can do nothing, and therefore he can’t do anything.”

The hearing of June 8th was continued to July 13, 1964, when it was resumed. At that time, Dr. William B. McGrath was called, whose specialty is neurology and psychiatry. Dr. McGrath was one of the five psychiatrists who composed the Psychiatric Advisory Board which had examined petitioner on January 17, 1964. He had also examined petitioner on December 24, 1962, at the first psychiatric consultation. Pertinent portions of Dr. McGrath’s testimony are set out at length since it is the basis of the award of the Commission which is here under attack.

“Q What were your findings on December 24, 1962, Doctor, in relation to the claimant’s psychiatric disability?
“A My findings at that time were that he had a passive inadequate personality and he had a variety of neurasthenic complaints.
* * * * * *
“Q Did you feel that these findings were triggered or precipitated by the accident of May of 1960?
“A No.
“Q Now, when did you see him the next time, sir?
“A On January 17, 1964.
******
“Q What were your findings at that time, sir ?
“A Our findings were essentially the same as those which we had recorded after our examination of December 24, 1962.
******
“Q Did the claimant at that time display to you an actual psychiatric disability ?
“A Yes.
“Q What was the manifestation of that disability, sir?
“A Anxiety.

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Chavarria v. Industrial Commission, 409 P.2d 26, 99 Ariz. 315, 1965 Ariz. LEXIS 346 (Ark. 1965).

409 P.2d 26 (Chavarria v. Industrial Commission) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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