Dotson v. Royal Indemnity Company

427 S.W.2d 150, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2829
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 15, 1968
Docket16872
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 427 S.W.2d 150 (Dotson v. Royal Indemnity Company) 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
Dotson v. Royal Indemnity Company, 427 S.W.2d 150, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2829 (Tex. Ct. App. 1968).

Opinion

OPINION

LANGDON, Justice.

This is a workmen’s compensation suit.

The jury, among other findings favorable to the claimant, found in its answers to Special Issues 2, 3, 6 and 11, respectively, that the claimant sustained an injury on November 6, 1964, which was accidental and a producing cause of the total and partial disability which it found.

Motions for judgment on the verdict and for judgment non obstante veredicto were filed by the plaintiff and defendant, respectively. The court finding no evidence of probative value in support thereof disregarded the jury findings above described and rendered judgment non obstante vere-dicto for the defendant.

The appellant by four points of error contends that there was evidence in support of the jury findings which were disregarded by the court and therefore the court erred in overruling his motion for judgment and in granting the defendant’s motion for judgment non obstante vere-dicto.

We affirm.

*152 The claimant was an employee of the Longhorn Motor Company. He was assigned to the parts department which involved putting up stock and delivering. He used a pick-up truck for deliveries. The items delivered were “from spark plugs up to motors.” On November 6, 1964, he went to work at 7:30 A.M. and assisted in unloading a shipment of parts from a big six-wheeler truck. Thereafter he loaded his pick-up with items, including tune-up parts and four boxes of brake shoes, for delivery. Enroute he stopped at a red light. He started up, changed shifts, put his hands up and experienced pain in his shoulders and “I had pains in my chest.” This was about 4:30 P.M. Up to this time he felt fine and had felt fine all day. He kept on driving to the point of delivery. In making the delivery he placed some items on a shelf, “and then another pain hit me and I dropped down in a chair, that was setting there.” As he sat there his shoulders were hurting and his hands got numb. He had no feeling in his hands at all. He could not even hold a pencil. After completing the delivery the claimant drove back to Longhorn Motor Company and thereafter went home. He did not work the following day, Saturday. He returned to work the following Monday.

The events above related which occurred on November 6, 1964, form the basis of the claim here involved. At this time the claimant was 64 years of age. At the time of trial, October 26, 1966, the claimant was 66 years of age.

Within a week or ten days after November 6, 1964, and twice more in December, similar episodes occurred. The last one in December occurred two or three weeks prior to January 10, 1965. At this time Dr. Mark E. Huff was called to the claimant’s home. He examined the claimant about 11:00 o’clock at night. This was the first occasion on which the claimant had summoned a doctor. He complained of chest pain and shortness of breath. The doctor suggested he go in (to the hospital) to check it out. The claimant decided to wait until morning to see how he felt. Next morning he felt better.

On January 10, 1965, close to midnight, Dr. Huff was again called to the claimant’s home. On this occasion, according to Dr. Huff, the claimant, “was having severe chest pain and shortness of breath, which is classical with a coronary and he was admitted promptly to the hospital and put under oxygen, something for pain and electrocardiograms were then run serially, I believe, beginning the next morning.”

The hospital records for the period January 10, 1965, to January 29, 1965, date of release, reflected the following information, part of which was based upon history given to Dr. Huff by the claimant and the latter’s family:

“CHIEF COMPLAINT: Severe pain and shortness of breath which came on rather suddenly.
“PRESENT ILLNESS: This man has been having some chest pain for the past several weeks. An EKG failed to reveal any evidence of abnormality done a few weeks ago.
“PAST HISTORY: Noncontributory. This man has never had any serious illnesses or difficulty in any way as far as his physical or mental condition. This is the first problem he has had as it so develops.
“SYSTEMIC REVIEW: CARDIAC: Negative except for these episodes of angina-like pain with some shortness of breath and would always come on at night. No edema of feet and ankles.
“DIAGNOSIS: ACUTE CORONARY THROMBOSIS.”

Paragraph VIII of the claimant’s original petition filed in the district court on September 15, 1965, described the claimant’s injuries as follows: “The injuries which Plaintiff received and the manner in which *153 he received them may be described as follows: He was lifting something heavy and he felt a pain in his chest and his arm felt numb. He has since found out he had had a heart attack.” This wording is almost identical with the claimant’s description of injury contained in his claim filed with the Industrial Accident Board.

When the claimant was asked who told him that he had a heart attack on November 6, 1964, he answered, “Nobody didn’t tell me. I realized — I thought I had one.” He testified that neither Dr. Huff or Dr. Barney, had ever told him that he had a heart attack on November 6, 1964.

It is apparent from the pleadings that the only injury complained of and made the basis of the claim for compensation was a “heart attack.”

Special Issue No. 2, which was answered “yes” reads: “Do you find from a preponderance of the evidence that the Plaintiff sustained an injury on or about the 6th day of November, 1964?” Although the “injury” inquired about could pertain only to the claimed heart attack there is no testimony in the record from the two medical witnesses, Dr. Mark E. Huff and Dr. Donald C. Barney, of Lawton, Oklahoma, in support of such a finding. The latter examined the claimant on May 27, 1966, approximately eighteen months after the November 6, 1964, episode and again on August 23, 1966. There is no testimony based upon reasonable medical probability that the claimant sustained a heart attack or that his heart sustained any damage or injury on the date in question. We have carefully examined the record in this case and have concluded that claimant as of the date in question proved only that he had some chest pain which put him on notice that he had a coronary insufficiency caused by arteriosclerosis (hardening of the arteries), enlarged heart, or some other disease which affected the flow of blood to his heart and thus was a candidate for a heart attack. No such attack occurred on November 6, 1964, and there was no injury to the heart. The pain was transitory. When the pain left, the disease remained. The pain did not cause the disease. It was merely a symptom.

In Scott v. Liberty Mut. Ins. Co., 204 S.W.2d 16 (Austin Civ.App., 1947, ref., n. r. e.), it was said that, “Under Art. 8307, Sec. 5, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St., the burden of proof to show a compensable injury is upon the claimant. And under Art. 8309, a compensable injury includes not only damages or harm to the physical structure of the body but ‘such diseases or infection as naturally result therefrom.’ * * * It is true that an injury may be compensable, even though aggravated by an existing disease, or by a disease occurring after the injury. Guzman v.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Rego Co. v. Brannon
682 S.W.2d 677 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1984)
Northbrook National Insurance Co. v. Goodwin
676 S.W.2d 451 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1984)
Holliman v. Leander Independent School District
679 S.W.2d 92 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1984)
Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n v. Thompson
610 S.W.2d 208 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1980)
TEXAS EMP. INS. ASS'N v. Thompson
610 S.W.2d 208 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1980)
Community Life & Health Insurance Co. v. McCall
497 S.W.2d 358 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1973)
Combined American Insurance Company v. McCall
497 S.W.2d 350 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1973)
TEXAS EMPLOYERS'INSURANCE ASSOCIATION v. Polasek
451 S.W.2d 260 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1970)
Lindley v. Transamerica Insurance Co.
437 S.W.2d 371 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1969)
Insurance Company of North America v. Kneten
440 S.W.2d 52 (Texas Supreme Court, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
427 S.W.2d 150, 1968 Tex. App. LEXIS 2829, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dotson-v-royal-indemnity-company-texapp-1968.