Fagan Electric Company v. Green

308 S.W.2d 810, 228 Ark. 477, 1958 Ark. LEXIS 507
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJanuary 13, 1958
Docket5-1412
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 308 S.W.2d 810 (Fagan Electric Company v. Green) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fagan Electric Company v. Green, 308 S.W.2d 810, 228 Ark. 477, 1958 Ark. LEXIS 507 (Ark. 1958).

Opinion

CarletoN Harris, Chief Justice.

Roy L. Green, in the course of his employment with the Fagan Electric Company, received, on December 22, 1950, a compensa-ble injury. He was thereafter paid temporary total disability for a healing period of 55 weeks at $25.00 per week. At the conclusión of the healing period, it was determined that Oreen had a 20 per cent permanent partial disability to the body as a whole. This represented 90 weeks of compensation at $25.00 per week. This was paid to Green, and on September 28, 1953, when the last payment of $25.00 was tendered to him, he was requested to sign Form A-ll (which is a required form of receipt by the Commission). Green refused to sign, it being his contention that he was entitled to a greater percentage of disability. The ease thereafter was heard by one of the referees, and an opinion was rendered on September 19, 1955, in which the referee held there was no greater residual attributable to the accident of December 22, 1950, than the 20 per cent admitted by appellant. A timely appeal was taken by Green to the full Commission. Thereafter, on May 15, 1956, the Commission rendered its opinion, in which it sustained the original opinion of the referee, and denied any additional claims for compensation. Whereupon Green appealed to the Circuit Court of Hot Spring County. On April 2, 1957, the said Circuit Court rendered a judgment reversing the Workmen’s Compensation Commission, and directed that an award be entered compensating Green for permanent and total disability. From such judgment appellant brings this appeal.

Green’s injuries, occasioned by a tree falling on him, were rather severe, and included a fractured spine, a brain concussion, and a fractured wrist. Three operations were performed on the wrist alone, and he was hospitalized off and on for about a year, last hospitalization occurring in May of 1951, at which time there was an operation on his right arm. In August, 1952, he commenced work for the Arkadelphia Sand and Gravel Company 1 (where he had previously been employed before working for Fagan Electric Company). His duties consisted of driving a locomotive engine 2 from the plant to tlie river, a distance of about a balf mile each way, hauling gravel. Fred Wells, superintendent, stated this was light work, and he would not put Green on heavy work. He stated that Green was a willing and satisfactory worker, but somewhat irregular. In his words: “Just roughly, I’d say he would come down, maybe work this week, maybe next week lose two or three days of that week — just in and out that way.” In Wells’ opinion, Green’s condition was growing-worse. Green’s testimony as to his condition, briefly summarized, is as follows: It was approximately two years after the accident before he attempted to work at all. . . it is necessary that he stay busy, otherwise, he is like something “caged up”; . . . he is extremely nervous, and suffers constantly except when “my head and neck all goes to sleep” . . . his head hurts all the time, and he is unable to sleep ... he has to take sedatives ... he has “black out” spells . . . when his head would hurt, he would “go wild” and chew his tongue . . . that he now becomes irritated and angry easily; “Anytime anybody messes with me, I am mad, my wife, or anything else. If I go out to the porch, at times I have gone home from work, something or other, if a dog rears at me, it makes me mad, kill him right then. Whenever I get that way something hits me. Everything goes out. Maybe I have forgotten about the dog. Looks like a thousand lights hits my head.” He further testified that when he is not busy, he worries; that he will not travel by himself, and that the condition referred to came about after the accident; that prior thereto, he was entirely able bodied. Green’s wife corroborated much of this testimony.

Green’s medical evidence consisted of reports by Dr. F. Walter Carruthers of Little Rock, Dr. Frank Padberg of Little Rock, Dr. R. L. Bryant of Arkadelphia, and Dr. Joe Winston Reid of Arkadelphia. At the request of the Commission, Green was examined by Oschner’s Clinic in New Orleans, and the report of Dr. Homer Kirgis is favorable to Green. The reports are rather extensive, and can only be briefly summarized here. Dr. Carruthers’ report of October 16, 1953, sets out that Green is mentally disturbed, and

“* * * In all probabilities he had a fracture involving the base of his skull. * * * — these episodes of black outs, his angry spells, the chewing of his tongue all point to cerebral irritation. Certainly he has a mild form of the Jacksonian type of epilepsy. This is an epilepsy due to a physical condition following injuries to the brain. * * * I feel that his major aftermath complaints can be based entirely upon the craniocere-bral injury that he has rather than upon his general physical conditions that I have mentioned as being normal. In other words, the other fractures and injuries that he received apparently have healed, and he has recovered from those. On the other hand, his mental and physical debilities as the results of the head injury, certainly he has not recovered from that . * * *”

The report concludes by stating that it is his opinion that the general overall body disability amounts to a minimum of 30 to 35 per cent. Dr. Padberg’s findings, dated October 8, 1953, are based entirely on the patient’s history. He found Green to be “quite anxious,” and stated that he appeared to have some disturbance with recollection of dates. From the report:

“* * * His history of black out attacks accompanied by sphincteric disturbance as well as tongue biting episodes certainly sounds like he may have had some sort of major cerebral irritation to produce these attacks. * * *”

Dr. Bryant found:

“* * * My diagnosis from examinations and x-rays and treatment at the time was that this man was suffering from post-traumatic headaches; extreme nervousness; poor muscular coordination, as he was very unstable on his feet. He would be expected to have these post-traumatic headaches, with possibly a change in his personality, and to become emotionally unstable as a result of tbe injuries be received. Prognosis: I have not seen Mr. Green since February 18, 1952, and at that time my prognosis was ‘unfavorable.’ * * *”

Dr. Reid saw Green regularly over a period of five or six years, and submitted several reports. It was Ms opinion that Green’s symptoms and attacks were the results of the injuries received in 1950. On November 9, 1955, Dr. Reid stated:

“* # * j-jg not abie to work and in my opinion will not become any better. I believe his disability to be the end result of injuries received in 1950. I believe he will continue to become progressively worse. # * *”

Dr. Kirgis, in a report of October 9, 1954, stated:

“* * * This patient, undoubtedly, sustained a severe cerebral contusion and the present symptoms represent a residual of that injury. The extent to which the brain was damaged could be evaluated more satisfactorily if an electroencephalogram and a pneumo-encephalogram were made. In view of the occurrence of the ‘blacking out spells’, I think it is important that these tests be made.

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Bluebook (online)
308 S.W.2d 810, 228 Ark. 477, 1958 Ark. LEXIS 507, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fagan-electric-company-v-green-ark-1958.