Coty v. Home Indemnity Co.

494 S.W.2d 645, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2944
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMay 10, 1973
DocketNo. 5244
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 494 S.W.2d 645 (Coty v. Home Indemnity Co.) 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
Coty v. Home Indemnity Co., 494 S.W.2d 645, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2944 (Tex. Ct. App. 1973).

Opinion

OPINION

JAMES, Justice.

This is a workmen’s compensation case which was tried before a jury and resulted in a verdict of fifty-four (54) weeks total temporary disability. A judgment for 54 weeks, less 35 weeks of compensation previously paid by Appellee at the rate of $49.00 per week was entered against the Defendant-Appellee Home Indemnity Company, and this appeal was perfected by Plaintiff-Appellant Coty.

The jury found, in answer to Special Issue No. 1, that the injury of October 19, 1970, was a producing cause of total incapacity; in answer to Issue 1A, that the beginning date of total incapacity was “October 19, 1970;” in answer to Issue IB, that the ending date of total incapacity was “November 1, 1971”; and in answer to Special Issue No. 2, the jury failed to find from a preponderance of the evidence that the injury of October 19, 1970 was a producing cause of any partial incapacity.

Plaintiff-Appellant Coty appeals on six points of error, attacking Special Issue IB (cutoff date for total incapacity at “November 1, 1971”) because there is (1.) no evidence and (2.) insufficient evidence to support such answer, and (3.) that such answer is so contrary to the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust. Appellant attacks the jury’s failure to find partial incapacity in response to Special Issue No. 2 on the grounds: (4.) and (5.) that he (Plaintiff-Appellant) is entitled to a finding of partial incapacity as a matter of law, and (6.) that the jury’s failure to find partial incapacity is so contrary to the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and manifestly unjust.

We sustain Appellant’s Point Six and reverse and remand the cause to the trial court for new trial. That is to say, we have carefully examined and weighed all of the evidence and have determined that the jury’s failure to find partial incapacity is so contrary to the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong.

Moses Coty at the time of trial was a man 57 years of age, with a seventh grade [646]*646education. He was injured on October 19, 1970, at about 8 AM while working as a warehouseman doing manual labor for Holly Produce Company. At the time of this injury he had been so employed at this same place for about fourteen years, and his usual daily working hours were from about 2 AM to 10 or 11 AM. The warehouse was 180 feet by 150 feet in size. Coty’s job consisted in loading and unloading produce of all kinds which was in sacks weighing a maximum of one hundred pounds each, and in stacking these sacks of produce inside the warehouse, which work required a considerable amount of lifting of these sacks of produce above and over his head. His job also included making sales of produce to customers.

On October 19, 1970, Coty and others were unloading potatoes from a trailer and moving them down a ramp to the loading dock; and on the way down the ramp, he fell from the ramp about six feet largely in an upside down position, and landed mainly on his right shoulder and arm upon the concrete walk below. He was not able to get himself up, but was helped by one James Kevin, the warehouse foreman, to get up. He testified that he had great pain in his neck, right shoulder and right arm. Kevin instructed Coty to go to the warehouse and sit down, to wait to be taken to a doctor. He did as he was told, and waited “thirty to thirty-five minutes” during which time the pain got worse. He testified he was not able to move his right arm. He was sent by Mr. Holly Onishi, one of the owners of the company, to see Dr. Frierson, who examined and x-rayed him, gave him some “pills” and “shots in the arm.” He was treated by Dr. Frierson about twice a week for three weeks, during which time he made little progress. Dr. Frierson told him to try to go back to work, and he did go back and do light work for a few days, “no more than a week”. He did work requiring the lifting of light bags or things he could lift with his left arm. He testified he had to quit this work because of his pain and his inability to use his right arm and shoulder.

Dr. Frierson recommended that he see another doctor, and sent him to Dr. Hirsh-berg, who made an appointment to put him in St. Joseph’s Hospital, where he stayed “eight or ten days”, in January 1971. Here his neck was put in traction about two hours a day, and he was given injections in his right arm. During his stay in the hospital he developed kidney trouble or a urinary problem. He testified he was not any better when he left the hospital than when he went there.

He was then referred to a Dr. Donovan who gave him injections and gave him a collar for his neck which he used about two hours and a half each night for a time. He was treated by Dr. Donovan for about five months, during which time Coty saw him about three times a week. Dr. Donovan took additional x-rays, gave him injections and prescribed some physiotherapy. Coty testified that he still was not improved after his treatment by Dr. Donovan. In March 1971 he was discharged from further care and released to return to work. He continued to have pain in his right shoulder and arm, but was given no further medical treatment. Then Coty’s attorney sent him to see a Dr. Goodall, whom he saw one time, and then his attorney sent him to see a Dr. Veggeberg who testified.

Coty testified that at the time of trial in October 1972, about two years after the October 19, 1970 injury, his neck, right shoulder and arm still hurt him and were not getting much better, and that he did not have but “a very little bit” of use of his right arm, was limited in raising his right arm, and still had trouble turning his head around.

As stated above, about two weeks after his injury, he went back and worked four days, but said he could not stand up to it, and then about three weeks later he tried [647]*647to work again, after which time he went to the Hospital.

He was off work approximately ten months in all, after which time he went back to work doing light duty.

Then, on an early morning in January 1972, at about 5:30 AM, he was going down some steps on an errand for the shipping clerk when he slipped and fell on ice on his right side, in which injury he injured his ribs as well as re-hurt to some extent his right shoulder and arm. (The testimony of Dr. Veggeberg discussed later in this opinion will clarify this last point).

Coty testified that before his injury of October 19, 1970, he was earing $1.80 per hour and was working from 55 to 62 hours a week, and that after this injury he went back to work on a light duty basis, and was earning the same hourly wage but was working only 35 to 40 hours per week; that he couldn’t put in as many hours as before because of the pain in his neck, right shoulder and arm.

On cross-examination, Coty testified in effect that prior to his January 1972 accident he “was getting along fair, but it never was well”.

Coty was now at the time of trial working for Holly Produce Co. for the same hourly wage as before, but was working fewer hours than before his injury of October 19, 1970, and was not able to lift the 100 lb. and other heavier type sacks, and particularly was unable to do work requiring lifting above his head. He testified that if he lost the job he now had that he did not feel he would be able to find another job.

Dr. Kermit R. Veggeberg, a specialist in orthopedic surgery, testified in behalf of the Plaintiff-Appellant, and was the only doctor to testify in the case. Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
494 S.W.2d 645, 1973 Tex. App. LEXIS 2944, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/coty-v-home-indemnity-co-texapp-1973.