Curran v. Walter E. Knipe & Sons, Inc.

138 A.2d 251, 185 Pa. Super. 540, 1958 Pa. Super. LEXIS 822
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedJanuary 21, 1958
DocketAppeal, No. 222
StatusPublished
Cited by59 cases

This text of 138 A.2d 251 (Curran v. Walter E. Knipe & Sons, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Curran v. Walter E. Knipe & Sons, Inc., 138 A.2d 251, 185 Pa. Super. 540, 1958 Pa. Super. LEXIS 822 (Pa. Ct. App. 1958).

Opinion

Opinion by

Woodside, J.,

This is a workmen’s compensation case in which the question is whether the board’s finding that the claimant suffered the permanent loss of the use of his leg should be sustained.

The claimant, Frank J. Curran, broke his leg (fractured the right tibia and fibula) in the course of his employment with the defendant on January 30, 1952. He received workmen’s compensation for total disability under an open agreement until October 21, 1953, when the defendant petitioned to modify the agreement alleging that Curran was no longer totally disabled. The referee, after hearing testimony, found as a fact that the claimant was still totally disabled, and dismissed the petition to modify. Upon appeal by the defendant, the Workmen’s Compensation Board affirmed the findings of the referee, and on September 7, 1955, dismissed the appeal.

On October 24, 1955, the defendant filed another petition to modify, this time alleging that the claimant’s injury had finally resulted in the loss of the use of his right leg. The referee found as a fact that “the claimant now suffers industrial loss of use of his right leg as a result of the accident.” Upon appeal by the claimant to the board, it amended the above finding of the referee by deleting “industrial”, and concluded that the claimant should be awarded compensation for the loss of use of his right leg. As this award limited the claimant’s compensation to 215 weeks from February 7, 1952, instead of the longer period for which he might have received compensation for total or partial disability, he appealed the order to the Court of Common Pleas No. 2 of Philadelphia. That court first sustained the appeal and reversed the order of the board, and then amended its order and remitted the record to the board. The defendant appealed to this Court.

[543]*543To understand the problem here involved we must examine section 306(c) of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, 77 PS §513, and see how it differs from paragraphs (a) and (b) of the same section.

The relevant parts of paragraph (c) are: “For all disability resulting from permanent injuries of the following classes, the compensation shall be exclusively as follows: . . . For the loss of a leg, sixty-six and two-thirds per centum of wages during two hundred and fifteen weeks . . .

“. . . Permanent loss of the use of a hand, arm, foot, leg, eye, finger, or thumb, great toe, or other toe, shall be considered as the equivalent of the loss of such hand, arm, foot, leg, eye finger, or thumb, great toe or other toe.”

Paragraph (a) of section 306 (77 PS §511) relates to total disability, and paragraph (b) relates to partial disability (77 PS §512) while paragraph (c), supra, relates to the compensation for permanent injuries to certain specified parts of the body. The capacity to work is involved in the compensation payable under paragraphs (a) and (b), but not in the compensation payable under paragraph (c) ; in it the right to compensation is measured by the extent of the injury. The legislature fixed the amount to be paid for the injuries described in paragraph (c) without considering, but including, all incapacity to labor that may be connected therewith, whether such incapacity be total, partial or no incapacity at all. The compensation allowed in paragraph (c) is restricted by precise language, regardless of the fact that a permanent injury might otherwise affect capacity to work. Lente v. Luci, 275 Pa. 217, 220, 119 A. 132 (1922); Camizzi v. E. T. Fraim Lock Co., 151 Pa. Superior Ct. 3, 8, 10, 29 A. 2d 425 (1942).

[544]*544It is to be noted that tbe defendant first petitioned to modify by alleging that tbe claimant no longer suffered total disability. At tbe hearing on that petition it attempted to establish partial disability. Instead of appealing from tbe board’s order on that petition, tbe defendant filed another petition alleging that tbe claimant’s injury had finally resulted in tbe permanent loss of use of bis right leg. Tbe claimant contends that by failing to appeal from tbe order of tbe board on the first petition, the defendant lost its right to litigate tbe question raised in tbe second petition.

Tbe answer to this contention is that tbe questions raised in tbe two petitions are not only different questions, but also depends upon different determinations. Loss of wages and capacity to work are involved in tbe question raised in tbe first petition, but they are not involved in the question raised in tbe second petition. It is possible for one to be totally disabled by a leg injury, and still not have suffered tbe permanent loss of use of the leg. It is also possible to have suffered tbe permanent loss of use of tbe leg and not be totally disabled. What was litigated on tbe first petition was tbe extent of tbe disability. Tbe defendant, and tbe claimant if it should happen to be to bis advantage, are entitled to have determined whether or not tbe claimant has lost the permanent use of his leg. This question bad never been considered by tbe referee or the board until, they acted upon tbe second petition.

The burden is upon the defendant to support the allegations of its petition to modify. He must establish by a fair preponderance of the evidence that the claimant has suffered the permanent loss of the use of his leg. Monarko v. Culmerville Coal Co., 159 Pa. Superior Ct. 126, 47 A. 2d 295 (1946); Snyder v. Hoffman, 159 Pa. Superior Ct. 392, 48 A. 2d 78 (1946).

[545]*545Whether the defendant has met this burden is a question of fact for the referee and the board and not for the court. A court is not permitted to weigh the evidence or to substitute its findings for those of the compensation authorities if there is legally competent evidence to support them. Savolaine v. Matthew Leivo & Sons, 131 Pa. Superior Ct. 508, 510, 200 A. 243 (1938); Flood v. Logan Iron & Steel Co., 145 Pa. Superior Ct. 206, 20 A. 2d 792 (1941); McClemens v. Penn Auto Parts, 181 Pa. Superior Ct. 542, 544, 124 A. 2d 623 (1956).

The question for us, as it was for the court below, is, therefore, not what we would find from the evidence if sitting as a fact finding tribunal, but whether the finding of the permanent loss of the use of the leg is supported by competent evidence. Savolaine v. Matthew Leivo & Sons, supra, and McClemens v. Penn Auto Parts, supra. As the board found for the defendant we must view the evidence in the light most favorable to the defendant and give it the benefit of all inferences reasonably deducible therefrom. Rice v. Public Meat Market, 166 Pa. Superior Ct. 328, 329, 70 A. 2d 443 (1950).

Before considering this, it is advisable to examine the test to be applied in determining the “permanent loss of the use” of an injured member of claimant’s body. The legislature and courts have vacillated concerning this test. It has been said that the test to be applied is whether the injured member “has become useless in any employment for which (the claimant) is mentally and physically qualified.” Rice v. Public Meat Market, supra; Morrow v. James S. Murray & Sons, 136 Pa. Superior Ct. 277, 282, 7 A. 2d 109 (1939); Corniak v. Cohen, 150 Pa. Superior Ct. 140, 146, 27 A. 2d 560 (1942); Zellner v. Haddock Mining Company, 139 Pa. Superior Ct. 16, 10 A. 2d 918 (1940).

[546]

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Bluebook (online)
138 A.2d 251, 185 Pa. Super. 540, 1958 Pa. Super. LEXIS 822, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/curran-v-walter-e-knipe-sons-inc-pasuperct-1958.