Firestone Tire & Rubber Co. v. Industrial Accident Commission

265 P.2d 147, 122 Cal. App. 2d 627, 1954 Cal. App. LEXIS 1094

• Court: California Court of Appeal
• Decided: January 19, 1954
• Docket: Civ. 20034
• Status: Published

Opinions

DRAPEAU, J.

In this case the employee testified that while he was rolling a bale of old automobile tires weighing 200 pounds, he stooped over and tried to lift the bale; that when he stooped over he felt a snapping or pulling sensation in his back. The employee’s doctor diagnosed his trouble as a herniated disc, for which he operated.

The Industrial Accident Commission found that the employee suffered an industrial accident causing a ruptured intervertebral disc. In the hearings of the commission it developed that all of the employee’s conduct and all of his statements after the accident pointed to a nonindustrial accident. He even went so far as to accept payments of compensation for his injury from a nonindustrial accident insurance plan, and the referee for the commission, who heard and observed the witnesses, found against the employee • and so recommended to the commission.

One of the cogent reasons for the commission’s reversal of the referee must have been the conduct of the employer’s nurse. It is in testimony that she told the employee he would lose his job if this was an industrial accident. For an illiterate working man that sort of threat is about as bad as a threat of death.

Also, it is to be remembered, that we do not hold an illiterate, frightened employee to the same meticulous standards of conduct that we would expect from a trained medical or legal mind.

Finally, it is a well-known fact that subjective symptoms of a ruptured disc are very often thought by patients to be nothing more than a common sprain or twist of the muscles of the back.

The testimony is sufficient to support the findings and conclusions of the commission.

The petition for a writ of review is denied.

Doran, J., concurred.