George A. Fuller Co. v. Industrial Commission

163 N.E. 9, 331 Ill. 336
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 23, 1928
DocketNo. 18174. Judgment affirmed.
StatusPublished

This text of 163 N.E. 9 (George A. Fuller Co. v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
George A. Fuller Co. v. Industrial Commission, 163 N.E. 9, 331 Ill. 336 (Ill. 1928).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Duncan

delivered the opinion of the court:

On a hearing before an arbitrator on the application of Mike Ledina, defendant in error, (herein called applicant,) for compensation, filed with the Industrial Commission, there was a finding that Ledina was entitled to have and receive from plaintiff in error, the George A. Fuller Company, (herein called respondent,)' the sum of $14 per week for a period of fifteen weeks for temporary total incapacity; that the sum of $154 had been paid on the award, which paid it to February 11, 1925; that the remainder of the award, from February 12 to March 12, 1925, amounting to $56, had not been paid, and an order was entered on June 17, 1925, that the remainder of the award be paid by respondent. The commission found that first aid, medical, surgical and hospital services had been furnished by respondent; that applicant’s average weekly wage was $36.30; that at the time of the injury he had no children; that compensation had been paid to him up to February 12, 1925; that from that date he became permanently and partially incapacitated from performing his usual and customary line of employment as a result of his injury, and that he is entitled to compensation therefor at the rate of $13.60 per week for a period of 275 weeks, beginning with February 12, 1925, under the provisions of paragraph (d) of section 8 of the Workmen’s Compensation act. The commission entered an award in accordance with its finding. The award was reviewed in accordance with the provisions of the statute and confirmed by the superior court of Cook county. This court allowed respondent a writ of error.

The sole question argued in the briefs of the parties is whether or not the applicant was partially and permanently injured and entitled to an award on the basis of such finding by the commission.

Mike Ledina, applicant, through an interpreter, on June 12, 1925, testified as follows: He is thirty-six years old and single. He has been in this country about a year and a half. He was injured November 26, 1924, while in the employ of respondent. He was carrying an iron beam on his shoulder while working at building construction work. He stepped on a plank, the plank slipped and tiis foot slipped, and by reason thereof he fell backwards, striking his back on another iron beam. (He indicated that the iron beam came in contact with his back in the lower lumbar region when he fell.) He could not get up after the fall. He was picked up and taken in a machine to Dr. Baylor’s office. He was sent to the Passavant Hospital, where he remained thirty days under the care of Dr. Baylor. He was placed in a cast for twenty-two days, which was applied from the upper part of his thigh to the upper part of his breast. He had pains in his back and couldn’t lie or sit down. From the hospital he was taken home in a machine on December 23, where he remained in bed most of the time. A part of the time he would go to his doctor for treatment and once in a while the doctor would visit him at his home to treat him. The doctor applied electric heat to his back. Three X-ray pictures were taken of his back while he was in the hospital and two were taken after he left the hospital, all of which were introduced in evidence. On the 18th day of May he began working in a restaurant, washing dishes, cleaning up the restaurant, and doing other such light work. He quit two days before he testified, and stated that he intended to go back to that work after the hearing in his case was concluded. When he stoops down he has pain in his back, like a knife sticking him. He has the same pain all the time. He has tried heavy lifting but cannot do it. He never had an accident before or since his present one. On cross-examination he stated that in February respondent offered to put him back to light work on the building at $36.30 — the same wage he received before he was injured. Respondent did not specify what the light work would be. Witness knew that there was no light work at the building for him to do and for that reason did not accept the offer. He did not understand respondent to specify that his job would be sweeping around the building and pulling nails out of boards, and Mr. Sullivan did not say, for respondent, that he could go back to the building and sweep up the place and pull nails out of boards until he felt that he was able to do heavy work. Sullivan told him that Dr. Baylor reported he was able to go to work and that he should go to work, and witness argued with Sullivan that he was not at that time able to work. Before his injury he had been working at building labor ever since he had been in this country and is familiar with the duties of a building laborer. He was not able to do anything on February 11, 1925, when he got his last compensation money from respondent. He was not able to do any work prior to May 18, 1925. He took the restaurant job as soon as he felt that he could do light work. He was the only one who worked in the restaurant as dish washer and as floor sweeper. It is a small restaurant in a working neighborhood. Up to noon there is nothing to do. The business of the restaurant is done in the afternoon and in the evening up to nine o’clock, when the restaurant is closed. He does work there about two and a half hours each day and pays for his meals there. He does not have to stoop in doing any of his work there.

By agreement each of the parties was to submit reports of physicians who had previously examined applicant and made such reports instead of taking their testimony under oath, and the X-ray pictures taken by the doctors on behalf of respondent and applicant were also to be submitted to the arbitrator as evidence. Under this agreement applicant introduced the reports of three physicians who had previously examined him and made such reports. The first was a report of Dr. Paul B. Magnuson, which was made on March 6, 1925, and is in substance as follows: The patient complains of pain at the level of the third lumbar vertebra, about one and a half inches to the right of his spine. At that point he is tender and on repeated examinations he returned to that point exactly as a tender spot. He also has pain in the right gluteal and sacro-iliac region. On examination flexion to the right and to the left is painful at the third lumbar — more on the right flexion than on the left flexion. A forward flexion gives pain in the right sacroiliac and gluteal region. The points were marked with ink and checked up on repeated examination. Extension to the right gives severe pain, applicant says, in the right sacroiliac and gluteal region; extension to the left not so much pain. Applicant says that extension to the right gives him more pain than any other motion. There is no muscle spasm on either side. The lateral motions are normal. Rotation to the right and to the left gives more pain in the right sacro-iliac joint. He does not find any fracture of the eleventh rib at this time. The X-ray pictures taken by Dr. Potter show a fracture of the right transverse process of the third lumbar vertebra. There is no displacement at this time. The angle of the right ilium as compared with the left, in its perpendicular with the spine, is much more acute, and judging by the profile of the lower part of the sacro-iliac joint there is a noticeable difference between the two sides, the right appearing to have been displaced upward. He believes that this man’s trauma caused a fracture of the transverse process of the right third lumbar vertebra. No displacement is shown at this time, with the rotation of the ilium on the sacrum on the right side.

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Bluebook (online)
163 N.E. 9, 331 Ill. 336, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/george-a-fuller-co-v-industrial-commission-ill-1928.