Davidson v. Scullin Steel Co.

408 S.W.2d 171, 1966 Mo. App. LEXIS 544
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 18, 1966
DocketNo. 32364
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 408 S.W.2d 171 (Davidson v. Scullin Steel Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Davidson v. Scullin Steel Co., 408 S.W.2d 171, 1966 Mo. App. LEXIS 544 (Mo. Ct. App. 1966).

Opinion

WOLFE, Presiding Judge.

This appeal concerns a claim filed with the Division of Workmen’s Compensation of the Industrial Commission of Missouri. The claimant sought compensation for an injury he sustained while working as an employee of the Scullin Steel Company. The hearing on his claim before a referee of the Division of Workmen’s Compensation resulted in an award to him of $47.50 a week for a period of weeks. The employee then made an application for a review by the full commission. Upon review the commission affirmed and adopted the referee’s award. This was followed by an appeal to the circuit court which affirmed the award of the commission. The claimant then appealed to this court from the judgment of the circuit court affirming the award.

The claimant here contends that evidence does not support the award of the commission and that the testimony of one doctor was erroneously admitted.

The Scullin Steel Company has a scale in its scrap yard for weighing furnace cars loaded with scrap iron. The cars operate on rails and carry iron to the smelting furnace. The cars are weighed as they stand on tracks and the mechanism of the scale which weighs them is underground. It is located in a room below the tracks which is reached by an 8 foot ladder. On May 28, 1964, the claimant, who was a man 32 years of age, was down in this room making an adjustment on the scale. The scale arm was a solid steel bar 6½ feet long, 4 inches thick, and 8 inches wide. It was fastened at one end but the end on which the claimant was working fell as he had his arm under it and it “jerked” him “maybe eight or ten inches to the ground.”

Claimant estimated the weight of the bar to be between 1,500 and 2,000 pounds. He testified: “It came down driving my right arm into my right side, jerking me all the way to the ground. It hurt my right leg, my right side. It hurt my back. I heard popping in the upper part of my back. I had smothering — I couldn’t breathe. I had hurting in my chest, and also my left shoulder hurt.” He was unable to get up the ladder without help and after reaching the ground level he went to the company dispensary. There he was X-rayed and given “pain pills,” massage and heat treatment. He went back to work on May 31, but he did not work the following five days. He went back to work on the 6th and 7th of June and thereafter he did not return to work until July 2.

[173]*173Claimant was treated at the company-dispensary on 19 occasions and Dr. Suba, the company doctor, prescribed a rib brace which claimant wore for a short time. Claimant complained of blood in the urine and was sent to St. John’s Hospital for examination. He first declined to enter the hospital but was finally persuaded to do so and he remained there from June 19 to June 25. At the request of Dr. Suba he was examined there by Dr. Brennan, a urologist specializing in genital urology. He was released on June 25 and lost a total of 37 days of work.

At the time of the hearing claimant testified that he had constant pain in his back and neck. He said the pain went up into his head and it got worse when he lifted. He described it as being like a toothache. He said when he lifts he feels like all the leaders and muscles of his back were torn out. He also stated that when he climbs stairs he gets smothering spells and blackouts and fainting spells. He said when he drinks liquids such as coffee, tea or milk he gets a sharp pain in his chest “just like you would stick a knife in there.” Every time he goes to sleep he wakes up during the night with no feeling in either arm. Feeling comes back after 35 or 40 minutes in the right arm and approximately 45 or 50 minutes in the left arm after he wakens. He stated he still had blood in his urine and blood in his stool.

A Dr. Stephens testified on behalf of claimant and stated that he examined the claimant on July 14, 1964 and on November 30, 1964. Upon these examinations claimant complained of pain in his upper back between his shoulder blades. The doctor stated that claimant described the pain to be constant like an ache and at times sharp. He said that the claimant stated that the pain was aggravated by bending and he avoids heavy lifting. He also stated that the claimant had daily episodes of nausea and vomiting towards the evening but no complaints of abdominal pains. An examination of the claimant’s back showed good alignment with no muscle spasms in the paravertebral muscles but he had diffused tenderness about the paravertebral muscles in the mid-dorsal region. X-rays were negative and there was no objective symptom of any kind. Dr. Stephens drew the conclusion that the claimant’s complaint regarding the dorsal region of his back were consistent with some soft tissue injury in that region and it was his opinion that the claimant was about 15% permanently disabled.

On cross-examination the doctor testified that he would diagnose the condition as a strain or sprain of the dorsal region, describing that as part of the back from the base of the neck to about three inches above the waistline. Upon cross-examination the doctor stated that the strain of the dorsal spine muscles would not be consistent with the claimant’s complaint of sharp shooting pain in his chest when he drank liquids. He also stated that the claimant’s smothering spells when he climbed steps were not consistent with his diagnosis of a sprained back nor did he find any connection with the diagnosis he had made with the claimant’s statement that he lost circulation of blood in both of his arms at night while lying down. Dr. Stephens stated that it was not likely that one would find sharp pain like a toothache, which claimant stated he had in the back of his neck at all times, associated with the sprain which the doctor thought the claimant had. The doctor also conceded that there would be muscle spasms if the strain were severe enough to cause nausea or vomiting and he did not find muscle spasms in claimant’s back at any time. He found no objective evidence of injury and the only evidence upon which he could base a diagnosis were claimant’s subjective manifestations of pain and his complaints. He was asked upon redirect examination if there was any causal relation between the blood in the urine and the accident and the doctor testified that he was not qualified to answer that.

The report of Dr. Brennan who made a cystoscopic examination in the hospital was also offered in evidence by the claimant. [174]*174Dr. Brennan found no blood in the urine visible to the naked eye but microscopic examination disclosed some blood cells. In his report he stated: “ * * * about all I can say is that this man apparently does have red cells in his urine and the only finding really is the veins in the bladder are engorged and whether this is the tail end of an inflammatory process or whether he strains real hard to urinate I don’t know, but I don’t think it’s anything serious. * * * »

The claimant stated that he quit his work at Scullin because he could not do the work such as climbing and lifting. He had been working five hours a day at a second job at the Commercial Cartage Company where he did lubrication work and repaired tires but he quit that work following the injury because he could not do the lifting and could not do the washing of trucks which he testified had to be done with an 18 inch brush on an extension. After that he worked at a Shell Filling Station at the intersection of Union and Delmar Boulevards from October 10, 1964, to December 14, 1964.

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529 S.W.2d 172 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1975)
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Taylor v. Bi-State Development Agency
416 S.W.2d 31 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1967)

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408 S.W.2d 171, 1966 Mo. App. LEXIS 544, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davidson-v-scullin-steel-co-moctapp-1966.