Consolidated Underwriters v. Wright

408 S.W.2d 140, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 3076
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedOctober 27, 1966
Docket14856
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 408 S.W.2d 140 (Consolidated Underwriters v. Wright) 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
Consolidated Underwriters v. Wright, 408 S.W.2d 140, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 3076 (Tex. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

WERLEIN, Justice.

This is a compensation suit brought against appellant, Consolidated Underwriters, by appellee, John Victor Wright, who alleged that he sustained accidental damage on or about March 5, 1963, and July 29, 1963, while in the course and scope of his employment for Texas Bolt Company. The jury found that appellee sustained an accidental injury which caused total incapacity beginning March S, 1963, and continuing for six weeks, and partial incapacity beginning July 25, 1963, which was permanent. The jury also found that appellee’s incapacity was not solely caused by any prior disease or prior bodily infirmity existing before March 5, 1963, disconnected with and not aggravated by the injury of March 5, 1963. The court, on the jury verdict and stipulation that appellee was entitled to receive his compensation, if any, in lump sum, entered judgment for appellee in the sum of $7,727.96.

In its first point appellant asserts that the trial court erred in overruling appellant’s plea to the jurisdiction and in abatement because there was a fatal variance between appellee’s claim before the Industrial Accident Board and the case as pleaded and submitted to the jury.

On August 24, 1963, appellee filed his notice and claim with the Industrial Accident Board on one of its printed forms entitled “Notice of Injury from Occupational Disease and Claim for Compensation for Injury from Occupational Disease.” To the inquiry on such printed form reading: “Date of first distinct manifestation of disease occurred on” appellee stated: “March 5,1963.” To inquiry: “Date last injuriously exposed to hazards of disease” appellee stated: “July 29, 1963”; in response to inquiry as to whether appellee had worked for any other employer since his incapacity began, appellee answered, “Worked for same employer from April 22, 1963 to July 29, 1963.” To inquiry as to when he started losing time, appellee answered, “March 5, 1963”; to inquiry as to whether he had re *142 turned to work, he answered, “Yes, temporarily from April 22, 1963 until July 29, 1963, and have not worked since that date.” To the inquiry, “Describe nature of occupational disease and cause of disease,” appel-lee answered, "Injury and irritation of lung tissues and bronchi (breathing tubes) caused from breathing gas fumes, etc. from furnaces in plant.” (emphasis ours)

On another of the Board’s forms appellee informed the Board that he was injured at his employer’s place of business at 10 a.m. on March 5, 1963, and that he reported the injury on that date to his employer’s superintendent. He was sent to a doctor by his employer. In a letter to the Board received January IS, 1964, appellee, inquiring why he had not received any compensation, started his letter by stating: “I am writing in regard to a accident * * * ” The Industrial Accident Board on June 22, 1964, made its award in which it stated that “The Board finds that the evidence submitted fails to establish that the claimant suffered a compensable occupational disease in the course of employment for subscribing employer herein as alleged. Therefore, said claim is denied.”

In his original petition appellee alleged, among other things, “Within the statutory time, your Plaintiff filed notice of injury from occupational disease and made claim for compensation for such occupational disease before the Industrial Accident Board of Texas.” He also alleged that he “filed this suit in this Court of competent jurisdiction to further prosecute his claim for workmen’s compensation insurance benefits.” Appellee further alleged in his petition that “On or about March 5, 1963, and July 29, 1963, your Plaintiff was working in the course and scope of his employment for Texas Bolt Company in Harris County, Texas. While performing his duties for his employer on said dates, your Plaintiff suffered accidental damage and harm to the physical structure of his body in the nature of inhaling of noxious gas and fumes, causing damage and harm to his bronchial tubes, lungs and respiratory system. As a result of said injuries, your Plaintiff has been substantially unable to perform the material tasks of a workman, and therefore has been disqualified from obtaining and retaining employment as such, consequently entitling him to total compensation benefits under the Workmen’s Compensation Act of Texas, either for an accidental injury under the law or as an occupational disease, in the amount of Thirty-five Dollars ($35) per week for a period of 401 weeks, as allowed by law.”

The evidence shows that appellee, who had only a seventh grade education, was engaged in making boxes for his employer, and that his place of work was in an upper level or attic of his employer’s office building, where he was practically surrounded by boxes piled ten feet high, and there was considerable heat and little or no ventilation, and where smoke and fumes from the heat treating units would “roll over here and come in, suck into back of my fan and onto me.” The potholes in the roof of such building were closed and, as appellee testified, there was no way for the fumes to escape. Appellee was the only employee who worked in the attic of the building. He testified that he was told not to open the potholes. He described the occurrence of March 5, 1963 as follows:

“Well I was working on — up there and the fumes and smoke was very bad and I found myself getting dizzy and I choked off and then I staggered myself to the front where I tried to get a little air and I set down on a box there until I could gain enough strength to see the ladder — I couldn’t hardly see the ladder as I come down the ladder and I said to the superintendent Mr. Anderson — that gas is killing me — I am a sick man — and he looked at me and wrote out a letter to go to the doctor.”

He further testified that he did not go to the doctor’s office immediately but lay down in his car for about an hour until he felt he was able to drive. He was given oxygen treatment. Appellee further testi *143 fied that before the accident he had never had any persistent difficulty in breathing or lung difficulty of any kind or chest pain of which he was aware. He testified that since such occurrence if he walked a block or two or did much talking he was out of wind; that he could not breathe and had to quit singing in church because his breath was so short and that when he breathed hard he developed a severe pain in his chest. He was given treatments for about a year or more. He tried to go back to work and worked two or 21/2 days “along the last of July” but that he was unable to stand up under the work; that he was getting no better and could not hold down any job on a full-time basis; that he had had no chest trouble before. He testified the fumes had been bothering him for several months before he finally got sick, but on that day of March S, 1963 he got especially sick and went to the doctor.

Ernest Williams, a fellow employee who had worked for the Texas Bolt Company for some 15 years, testified with respect to the gas and the heat treating units, and also testified:

“I don’t know if he fell out or not but I know he come downstairs and he had been around walking to the doors and I asked what was wrong and he said those gas fumes are sure strong and I did go up there and they sure was strong.”

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Bluebook (online)
408 S.W.2d 140, 1966 Tex. App. LEXIS 3076, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/consolidated-underwriters-v-wright-texapp-1966.