Gonzales v. Pecos Valley Packing Co.

146 P.2d 1017, 48 N.M. 185
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 11, 1944
DocketNo. 4804.
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 146 P.2d 1017 (Gonzales v. Pecos Valley Packing Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gonzales v. Pecos Valley Packing Co., 146 P.2d 1017, 48 N.M. 185 (N.M. 1944).

Opinion

BICKLEY, Justice.

Plaintiff workman suffered an industrial injury by accident resulting in the loss by severance of his left arm, his nqn-dexterous member, between the wrist and elbow. The defendant employer discharged its duty toward the workman during the healing period, acknowledged liability under the compensation schedule (1941 Sts. 57-918) for a period of 130 weeks as for the loss of “One arm between wrist and elbow, nondexterous member,” and agreed to furnish plaintiff an artificial member.

The workman, while receiving the payments at regular intervals for a time, became dissatisfied with the allowance, and' employed the attorneys who represent him here, to demand and secure an increased compensation. The demand being refused, this action ensued in which the workman claimed compensation as for total disability.

The substance of the trial court’s decision, findings of fact and conclusions of law material to a review, is that the plaintiff was employed at a salary of $18 per week and that while so engaged his left arm was caught in a sausage grinder which he had been operating, with the result that said arm was torn and mangled, necessitating its amputation between elbow and wrist, and also resulting in serious injury to his left shoulder so that the lubricant in the socket of the left arm at the shoulder was greatly diminished, with the result that the plaintiff can only move said arm to a very limited extent without suffering intense pain; that as a result of said injury the plaintiff’s ability to obtain and retain permanent employment at a gainful occupation has been very materially decreased, and that he was, at the time of the trial, suffering seventy-five per cent total disability. The court also found:

“That many years prior to the injury sustained while working for the defendant packing company, the plaintiff’s right arm, shoulder and hand were injured so that he has difficulty in grasping objects with his right hand for any considerable length of time which, taken with his injuries sustained on September 15, 1942, makes him totally disabled as measured by the standard of being able to obtain and retain gainful employment, but I find that only seventy-five percent of such disability was occasioned by the injury received on September 15, 1942.”

The court allowed plaintiff $200 for attorneys’ fees.

The court concluded as a matter of law that the plaintiff is entitled to the statutory compensation not to exceed 550 weeks.

The judgment provides that the plaintiff recover from the defendants compensation at the rate of $10.80 per week for a period of 130 weeks on account of the specific injury sustained by him (loss of one arm between wrist and elbow, non-dexterous member) and that after payment for said scheduled injury has been fully made by the defendants, the plaintiff shall thereafter receive permanent partial compensation on the basis of 75% disability at the rate of $8.10 per week for the remaining 420 weeks.

Both parties appealed. The defendants, appellants, contend that there is no substantial evidence which would support a finding of total disability. They also contend that the court’s findings that claimant suffered a 75% total disability are too speculative, indefinite and uncertain to support the judgment and are not based on any substantial evidence.

The plaintiff, cross-appellant, presents only one assignment of error, to the effect that the district court erred in not rendering judgment for plaintiff on the basis of permanent and total disability. Plaintiff’s theory of the case was stated to the court at the beginning of the trial as follows:

“It is our contention the whole arm is incapacitated up to the shoulder including the shoulder joint and he had other injuries some years ago which have practically paralyzed his right shoulder and hand and as a result of this last injury he is totally incapacitated.”

Workmen’s compensation being of comparatively recent origin, and workmen’s compensation laws having been enacted in most of the states employing varying phraseology, it has come about that to many of its interpreters the enactment represented something different. These difficulties are pointed out in the Iowa Law Review, Vol. 28, 1942-43, entitled “Permanent Partial Disability Under the Workmen’s Compensation Acts”, by Oscar E. Whitebook, a law writer of large experience, in which he says:

“One of the yardsticks which is constantly in use in such legislation is permanent partial disability. So often does that yardstick seem to be made of rubber that an attempt to standardize the measure would not seem to be out of place. To ascertain the meaning of the phrase the statutes in the various states must be scrutinized, and the judicial interpretations placed upon such statutes must be examined.”

We think that before beginning a discussion of the facts of the case at bar it will be advantageous to scrutinize the portion of our statute which has to do with the “Compensation Schedule” which is found in 1941 Sts., Sec. 57-918. It may be stated broadly that this section sets up a yardstick of total disability (subdiv. a) _ which embraces presumptive total disability due to the loss of both hands, or both arms, or both feet, or both legs, or both eyes, or any two thereof in the absence of conclusive proof to the contrary. Then there is the residuary clause which says that the presumptive total disability shall not be exclusive of other cases of total disability.

Then the section in a distinctly separate portion thereof (b) presents the yardstick for “disability partial in character but permanent in quality” which is commonly referred to in the books as permanent partial disability. This portion of the statute likewise contains specific and residuary clauses. It is said that the permanent partial disability “shall be measured by the extent of such disability.” It is then said:

“In the following cases the compensation shall be sixty (60) per cent of the earnings of such workman, subject to the limitations of this act * * * as to the maximum and minimum payments as provided in paragraph (a) of this section. For the loss of: * * *”

Then follows forty-three specific allowances for the loss of the members named. It is then said:

“In all other cases in this class, or where the usefulness of a member of (or) any physical function is permanently impaired, the compensation shall bear such relation to the amounts stated in the above schedule as the disabilities bear to those produced by injuries named in the schedule.” (We have inserted “or” parenthetically because a comparison with previous enactments indicates that this “of” should be “or” although it makes no difference in the case at bar.)

We think the result is that the section provides for compensation embracing:

(1) loss of a scheduled member (by severance) .

(2) loss of the use of a scheduled member.

(3) impairment of the use of a scheduled member.

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Bluebook (online)
146 P.2d 1017, 48 N.M. 185, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gonzales-v-pecos-valley-packing-co-nm-1944.