Dudley v. Ferguson Trucking Company

297 P.2d 313, 61 N.M. 166
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1956
Docket5934
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 297 P.2d 313 (Dudley v. Ferguson Trucking Company) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dudley v. Ferguson Trucking Company, 297 P.2d 313, 61 N.M. 166 (N.M. 1956).

Opinion

McGHEE, Justice.

The defendants, employer and insurer, appeal from a judgment of the district court awarding claimant, employee, workmen’s compensation benefits.

Claimant sustained a compensable injury when he was helping to load oil well drilling equipment on a truck. A drill collar rolled off a flat bed and struck his right, foot. It was necessary that the great toe on this foot be amputated through the proximal portion of the first phalanx. Claimant was hospitalized at Farmington, New Mexico, in excess of two and one-half months, during which time four operations were performed on his foot. The insurer-paid for the medical and hospital expense involved and also paid $392.29 for the period of time of claimant’s temporary total disability. After claimant’s release from the hospital he moved to Deming, New Mexico, where he commenced work on his brother’s farm.

The insurer sent claimant a check for $450 for settlement of his compensation on the basis of loss of the great toe. Claimant refused this settlement and thereafter he was examined by Dr. W. C. Basom, an orthopedic specialist in El Paso, Texas, whose medical report, communicated to the defendant insurer by claimant’s attorney, indicated further surgical treatment would probably improve the condition of claimant’s foot. The insurer again offered $450 in settlement for the loss of the toe plus $300 for future medical expense and loss of time. This offer, too, was refused by claimant and suit by him was then instituted.

Trial was had to the court which found claimant entitled to compensation at the rate of $30 per week for (a) fifteen weeks for the loss of his great toe, and (b) twenty-five weeks for twenty-five percent permanent disability to his right foot, and, in addition, that he should recover:

(1) $400.00 for necessary medical treatment which will be required in the future;

(2) Four weeks’ compensation for temporary total disability incurred in the future as a result of additional medical treatment;

(3) $55 for a specially built boot purchased by claimant; '

(4) $34 for medical services rendered by the'El Paso doctor;

(5)$350 for services of claimant’s at« torney.

Judgment was entered making these awards.

The defendants maintain on this appeal that the judgment improperly pyramids the benefits allowed to claimant in that he was allowed compensation for the loss of the great toe on his right foot and also for twenty-five percent permanent disability to the right foot. Principal reliance is placed upon the decision in Gonzales v. Pecos Valley Packing Co., 1944, 48 N.M. 185, 146 P.2d 1017. That case held a workman could not recover an award for loss of a specific bodily member under the statutory schedule and also an award for general percentage disability which, as the Court assessed the proof in that case, was necessarily based upon the loss of member.

Superficially, it would appear that the instant awards do allow claimant double, compensation, upon the assumption that the loss of claimant’s toe must have at least entered into the computation of disability to the foot. However, the medical testimony, viewed most favorably as to claimant-appellee, and bolstered by all reasonable inferences flowing therefrom, seems to us adequate to support the permissibility of both awards.

Dr. Basom’s testimony, by deposition, was, in part:

“Q. Please state what your examination revealed ? A. That he had post-traumatic artrophy and amputations and post-traumatic sesamoiditis and stiffness in the second toe.
“Q. Doctor, would you explain in layman’s language what that means? A. This patient had the great toe amputated, more or less totally. Then the remaining part of it and at the end of the bone which connects with the great toe was a very roughened area due to the injury. Then the two small bones called sesamoids were also roughened and made a painful condition in the patient’s foot.
“Q. These bones you referred to then, are they primarily in the arch of the foot ? A. These bones are located within the phalanges of the foot and along the metatarsal toe region. This is the place — see, here is a little bit of the great toe remaining — here is the joint and here is the second sesamoids. He had a bread (sic) right through there.
“Q. Doctor, you are referring to an x-ray there, and is that x-ray a picture you took of Mr. Dudley’s foot? A. Yes, it was taken in our office.
“Q. From your examination, can you estimate the disability, if any, which he has in his foot? A. He has a definite amount of permanent disability to his foot. I would estimate ’about twenty-five percent.
jjt ‡ ^ ‡
“Q. The disability you have testified to — to what portion of the foot are you referring? A. The disability is located in the forepart of the foot just above where the toes join on to the foot.
“Q. The estimate of disability you had made — a moment ago — does that include the loss of the great toe? A. On what the patient has at the present time. I did, however, assume that the toe, of course, was gone.
‡ ^ ^ ^ ‡ ‡
“Q. Doctor, in the report which I received from you, you stated there was moderate osteoporosis — would you explain what that is? A. The bones in this patient’s foot are very soft. They are not as strong as they normally should be. They are not as white in the x-ray as they are normally seen, and this is a painful condition.
“Q. Did you find osteoporosis present in Mr. Dudley’s foot? A. Yes, he had a definite amount. I referred to it as post-traumatic, which is practically the same.
“Q. Is that condition a result of this injury? A. Yes sir.
“(The doctor continued on cross examination:)
i}c * * * * *
“Q. What factors did you take- into consideration in arriving at your estimate of twenty-five percent disability? A. Mine is mainly based on the estimate of how much the foot falls short of being a normal one. The loss of the toe and the involvement in the forefoot area with the pain, were the basis of the estimate. Of course, pain is a very difficult thing to estimate. It was my impression this was about %ths as good as a normal foot.
“Q. You did consider the loss of the great toe as one of the factors in arriving at that estimate? A. Well, the toe — and of course the second toe had some disability, too. All of that actually would be included in my twenty-five percent estimate.
“Q.

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297 P.2d 313, 61 N.M. 166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dudley-v-ferguson-trucking-company-nm-1956.