Frix v. Supreme Catering Service & Aetna Insurance Co.

444 So. 2d 710, 1984 La. App. LEXIS 7874
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedJanuary 10, 1984
DocketNo. 83-CA-610
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 444 So. 2d 710 (Frix v. Supreme Catering Service & Aetna Insurance Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Frix v. Supreme Catering Service & Aetna Insurance Co., 444 So. 2d 710, 1984 La. App. LEXIS 7874 (La. Ct. App. 1984).

Opinion

BOWES, Judge.

Plaintiff appeals a judgment of the district court dismissing her suit for further workman’s compensation benefits following an accident which occurred subsequent to her work-related injury. We reverse and remand.

Ms. Linda Frix, plaintiff-appellant, was originally injured on September 17, 1981. On that date, while in the course and scope of her employment for Supreme Catering Service, Ms. Frix slipped on a loose tray and fell, sustaining an injury which was initially treated at the emergency room of East Jefferson General Hospital. She was then referred to her own physician, Dr. Bruce Razza, for further treatment.

The cross-examination, at trial, of Dr. Razza produced the following colloquy: .

Q. I have a copy of the Emergency Room Report which was supplied to the Court in response to a subpoena [711]*711duces tecum to the hospital and I would ask that you refer to that. Could you please read to us what it says by brief history—
Yes, sir, the brief history in the accident or emergency room visit states that the patient states she fell and hurt the hip of her right side and her right shoulder. That was the history.
MR. HELLMAN:
Q. As far as the physical findings of concern, can you make out what that says?
A. Tender at hip area and something on foot out—
Q. You can’t really make that out?
A. No, and then lumbo-sacral area tender and then ...

On Mrs. Frix’s first follow-up visit to Dr. Razza, he diagnosed her injuries as an “acute lumbosacral strain, secondary to fall, contusion of the right hip [with] [n]o signs of sciatica.” Plaintiff did not report, specifically, pain in her right foot to her physician until a follow-up visit on October 27, 1981. Thereafter, she continued to complain of pain in her right foot and, finally, on December 15, 1981, Dr. Bruce Razza (her physician) diagnosed her foot problem as Morton’s neuroma. Surgery to correct the condition took place on January 5, 1982. The surgery was deemed a success and, on February 18, 1982, Ms. Frix was discharged to return to full duty at work. During the February 18th visit, plaintiff complained of burning and numbness in her foot, which her physician attributed to her surgery.

Ms. Frix never returned to work, so we do not know if she was able to work prior to her second injury, but, two weeks later, on March 4, 1982, Ms. Frix returned to Dr. Razza complaining that she was once again experiencing acute pain, similar in nature to that which she had suffered prior to her surgery. The following testimony by Ms. Frix, on direct, is, in our opinion, the pivot on which this case hinges and, therefore, although rather long, is included:

Q. Would you recount the events prior to Mardi Gras day?
A. I seen Dr. Razza on the 18th of February and he told me that he felt that I could go back to work on the 24th if I didn’t have any trouble with my foot. I asked him about walking, going to some parades, would that be alright and he asked me about the walking I had done, how sore it would be and instructed me not to fall. I went Saturday and walked a couple of hours and my foot started hurting and started swelling on me. We waited for another couple of hours. I got up walked some more and it kept hurting me and I had my pain pills with me and I went home. Joe tried to call Dr. Razza.
Q. Joe is your husband?
A. Yes. Through his answering service, to see what to do so I didn’t know if it was normal for it to swell after I had been on it that much. We couldn’t get a hold of him so we took the kids Sunday afternoon and a couple of hours I had to sit down. I couldn’t walk on it. It was hurting so bad so we let the kids watch a couple of more parades and we went home.
Tuesday, Mardi Gras day we went down about eight o’clock all day. I had to stop every two or three hours. It was hurting, it was swelling and I took my shoe off because the shoe felt so tight. It was swollen. We sat down. I got back up after taking a pain pill after eating. I went back up with my children. It started hurting again. It was still swollen. Later on that afternoon the policeman was pushing to the back. I was standing over here on St. Charles when the people came back, a guy was in front of me, backed up on me when he went to step on my foot, when I felt that something was on my foot, I moved my foot. He did not come down hard on my foot because I jerked it out from under him. Wednesday morning when I got up my foot was swelling and Joe called Dr. Razza and he was in surgery. Joe called him Thursday. He [712]*712told me to do the hot soaks, elevate it and get on my crutches if I need to and come into his office.
Q. When were your workman’s compensation benefits terminated?
A. February 25th.
Q. Have you been continuing to see Dr. Razza since that time?
A. Yes.

At the close of the trial, counsel for both sides stipulated that if plaintiff called Mr. Steve Roth to testify he would testify that he was with Mr. and Mrs. Frix on Mardi Gras day and that Mrs. Frix’s foot was swollen prior to the time her foot was stepped upon. This stipulation clearly buttresses the testimony of Mrs. Frix and, when considered along with her testimony, indicates that even though she was discharged by her physician on February 18, 1982, she had not completely recovered from her injury.

Dr. Bruce Razza, Ms. Frix’s treating physician, testified as follows:

Q. So it is possible then that this injury could have been there all along, that the present condition that she has, could have been there and could have been masked by the treatment that she has received for the Morton’s neuro-ma?
A. It certainly is possible ... it certainly is possible that I could have just missed the proximal joint from the beginning and that it got better. In other words, the overall effect of the ster-iods, I treated it for one area, but the nearby area benefited too. That is possible. Again, it is not the way I see it, but I could have missed it. Yes, sir.
Q. Dr. Rauchwerk, referred to a term causalgia. Could you explain that term?
A. Causalgia has to deal with continued pain from nerve irritation. A situation applicable to this if you excise the area of the nerve that is swollen and irritated the area of the neuroma, part of the nerve ending proximal that is further on up closer to the foot could still be triggering all pain messages to the brain. If there is still irritation to it and again that could have been a component of her problem, but most of her picture started localizing in the joint in the tarsal, metatarsal joint and it sort of left that area so that area was again flared up....
Q. Now I realize when you are talking about causalgia, this causalgia is a smaller percentage. It is a low percentage of patients that have this sort of recurrence after the excision of the neuroma, but it is a possibility in this case. She did in fact, have this causal-gia?
A.

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

Related

Moore v. Pitt Grill
871 So. 2d 1128 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2004)
Sheralon F. Moore v. Pitt Grill
Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2004
Veal v. Dwyer
504 So. 2d 884 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1987)
Levitz Furniture Corp. v. Horne
477 So. 2d 824 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1985)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
444 So. 2d 710, 1984 La. App. LEXIS 7874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/frix-v-supreme-catering-service-aetna-insurance-co-lactapp-1984.