Federal Underwriters Exchange v. Arnold

127 S.W.2d 972, 1939 Tex. App. LEXIS 1056
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 31, 1939
DocketNo. 13890.
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 127 S.W.2d 972 (Federal Underwriters Exchange v. Arnold) 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
Federal Underwriters Exchange v. Arnold, 127 S.W.2d 972, 1939 Tex. App. LEXIS 1056 (Tex. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

' BROWN, Justice.

This is a workmen’s compensation suit, and the principal basis for recovery is the fact that the employee, Arnold, who is defendant in error, sustained a double hernia while engaged in the performance of the duties for which he was employed. The jury found that the employee was totally and permanently incapacitated and judgment was therefore rendered for him for 401 weeks.

The cause having been appealed to the Cpurt of Civil. Appeals for the Texarkana District, same -was transferred by the Supreme Court to this Court.

There are some 46 assignments of error, supported by 20 propositions.

The first, second and third propositions are, in substance, that the judgment is erroneous, in that the jury found that the employee did not sustain any injury to his body other than that he sustained the hernias complained of, and that the employee not having pleaded that he offered to submit to an operation, but that the insurance carrier, plaintiff in error here, refused to furnish him the. operation, and no proof having been adduced showing that the employee offered to undergo the operation, but that the insurance carrier refused to furnish same, and no issue having been submitted to the jury touching these matters, therefore the trial court should have rendered judgment for the employee for the specific injury of hernia, and allowed compensation, under the statute, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306, § 12b, subd. 4, for only 26 weeks.

The contention is that these issues not having been submitted, they have been waived, and the further contention is made that the finding of the jury, to the effect that the employee did not sustain any injury other than the specific disability caused by the hernias, is in direct and irreconcilable conflict with the further finding of the jury that defendant suffered total and permanent disability.

We think'that there is some merit in these contentions, but that we are powerless to reform and affirm, by rendering judgment for the employee • for the said specific injury. We arrive at this conclusion because it was specifically alleged by the employee that the insurance carrier refused to' furnish the operation, and an order of the Board was introduced in evidence, which demanded that the insurance *975 carrier furnish the operation for reducing the hernias, and a further order of the Board was introduced in evidence, which specifically recites that the insurance carrier has failed and refused to furnish the operation. Thus it may be readily seen that all of the allegations necessary for a full recovery on the part of the employee, because of his disability, have been made, saving and except the one that the employee was ready and willing to submit to the operation. There was no proof that the employee was willing to submit to the operation.

Therefore, we have concluded that one element necessary for a full recovery upon the part of the employee is lacking, both in the pleading and in the proof, and we believe that this necessitates a reversal by us and a remand, to the end that justice may be done between the parties.

We can see how an injured employee, who has suffered a double hernia, can be totally and permanently disabled to perform the usual tasks of a workman, and we can see why the Legislature has been wise enough to provide that where a hernia has been suffered and the- Board has ordered an operation on the employee, who is willing to undergo the operation, and the insurance carrier has refused to furnish the operation, that then and in such event, the employee, if he has sustained the kind of hernia that will totally and permanently incapacitate him, should be permitted to recover more than the statutory recovery for a specific injury, to-wit, 26 weeks, but we believe that all necessary allegations to cover these matters should be made in the pleadings, that proof should be made covering such issues, and findings should be made thereon by the jury.

We do not agree with the contention that the finding by the jury that the employee did not sustain any injury other than the specific disability of hernia, is in direct and irreconcilable conflict with the finding that such employee has suffered total and permanent disability.

We do not think that there is any merit in the fourth proposition, wherein it is contended that the trial court erred in admitting the testimony of certain witnesses, touching the issue that there were no other employees of the same class as defendant in error, working in the same or similar employment, in the same or neighboring places, who had worked substantially the whole of the year immediately preceding the date- on which defendant in error sustained his injury. The contention is that these witnesses based their testimony solely upon inquiries made by them and testified frota unsworn statements of others who were not produced in court. The contention further being that this testimony was based in part, if not in whole, upon hearsay.

We think that the Workmen’s Compensation Laws (Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8.306 et seq.) should be liberally construed, and that a substantial compliance therewith is all that is sufficient, and where it devolves upon an employee to make proof of the facts here under discussion, we know of no better way to establish these facts than was done in the instant case.

Assuredly, an inquiry upon the part of any citizen to ascertain whether or not there’ were other employees engaged in the same class of work as that in which the injured employee was engaged, and ascertainment on his part by such inquiry that there were not, is testimony of some substantial probative force.

What is the material difference between this class of proof and that of picking a workman here, there and yonder, engaged in the same class of work or in kindred work, and asking such workman if he had worked for substantially a whole year during the 12 months prior to the employee’s injury, and further, if he knew of any such employee who had worked such length of time during such period?

Furthermore, we are committed to the proposition that when an injured'workman produces evidence of some probative force, covering these provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Laws, such testimony makes out a prima facie case, and common justice would require that the insurance carrier meet this testimony with proof showing that it is not correct, just as it devolves upon the insurance carrier to meet any other issue, after the employee has made out a prima facie case. Traders & Gen. Ins. Co. v. Bulis, 129 Tex. 362, 104 S.W.2d 488; Traders & Gen. Ins. Co. v. Crouch, Tex.Civ.App., 113 S.W.2d 650, writ dismissed, citing Fed *976 eral Underwriters Exchange v. Stewart, Tex.Civ.App., 109 S.W.2d 1031, writ-dismissed. • Therefore, we find no substantial merit in the fourth, fifth, sixth and seventh propositions.

The eighth proposition complains of-, .admitting in .■ evidence the testimony of a co-worker- named; White, who testified that defendant in error told him within a;few days that he had-got h.urt. We think, this proposition is good.

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Bluebook (online)
127 S.W.2d 972, 1939 Tex. App. LEXIS 1056, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/federal-underwriters-exchange-v-arnold-texapp-1939.