Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. McGuffin

165 N.E. 586, 31 Ohio App. 91, 1929 Ohio App. LEXIS 611
CourtOhio Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 22, 1929
StatusPublished

This text of 165 N.E. 586 (Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. McGuffin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. v. McGuffin, 165 N.E. 586, 31 Ohio App. 91, 1929 Ohio App. LEXIS 611 (Ohio Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

Pardee, J.

The parties sustain positions in this court the reverse of those in the court of common pleas, but will be referred to in this opinion as plaintiff and defendant, as they were in that court.

*92 The plaintiff, George A. McGuffin, was an employee of defendant, working in its Akron factory, and while in the course of his employment on March 3, 1921, fell and received injuries. The defendant had fully complied with the Workmen’s Compensation Law, and had undertaken to pay direct to its employees as provided by that law.

The plaintiff, as required by law, made application to the commission for compensation, and it made him allowances from time to time, up to and including July 2, 1924. Thereafter, and in due time and proper order, he asked the commission for a further allowance, claiming to be totally disabled, or permanently partially disabled. This claim was denied by the commission, and, upon appeal to the court of common pleas, the plaintiff was found by the jury to be suffering from a partial disability as a result of his injuries suffered at the time and under the circumstances indicated, and, further, that his earning capacity had been partially impaired and that said impairment would continue for a period of seven years from and after the date that the last allowance of the commission ceased.

The defendant claims:

First. That the plaintiff did not show by sufficient evidence that the disability from which he suffers was due to injuries received in the course of his employment.

Second. That the charge of the court was prejudicial to the defendant, in that it did not specify conditions under which a verdict might be rendered for the defendant.

Third. That the form of the verdict prepared and submitted by the trial judge, and returned by *93 the jury, was prejudicial. The form of the verdict in part is as follows:

“We * * * find * * * in favor of the plaintiff and * * * that -the plaintiff in the course of his employment * * * suffered injuries and that said injuries have resulted in a partial disability and have impaired the earning capacity of said plaintiff during the continuance thereof ($6.25) Six 25/100 Dollars per week, and that said partial impairment of the earning capacity of the said plaintiff has continued or will continue from and after July 2, 1924, for a period of seven years. ’ ’

The claim made is that the jury did not have the right to cover any period of time other than from the 2d day of July, 1924, up to the date when the Industrial Commission ruled against him, to wit, November 25, 1925.

As to the first claim of the defendant:

From our reading of the evidence contained in the bill of exceptions, we cannot say that the jury were manifestly wrong, as there is evidence in the record showing when and how the plaintiff received the injuries alleged, and also showing the same to be of a serious nature, and that the plaintiff is still suffering therefrom. If the jury believed this evidence, they were fully warranted in rendering the verdict they did.

Second. As to the charge of the court, we have carefully read the charge and applied it to the evidence offered in the case, and, while it might have been fuller, still we are of the opinion that the court stated the issues sufficiently, and that the jury fully understood them and were not misled; there *94 fore the defendant was not prejudiced by the charge as given.

This, then, takes us to the last and most serious claim of the defendant. This claim of the defendant, as stated in its brief, is as follows:

“This form of verdict could not, we claim, cover any period of time other than from the 2nd day of July, 1924 * * * up to the date when the Industrial Commission ruled against him, namely, the 25th day of November, 1925 * * *. Our point on this particular subject is that the appeal, under General Code Section 1465-90 is from the action of the Industrial Commission. There is no jurisdiction to consider other matters than were involved herein before the Industrial Commission at the time of its final order # * * or at the very most, to the facts which were presented to the jury at the time of the trial.
“In this case, the court endeavored to cover a period in the future, far beyond the time of the trial, and in so doing, the court assumed jurisdiction which was not granted under General Code Section 1465-90.”

And in its reply brief, the defendant states:

“The reasons why we maintain that the jurisdiction of the jury should be limited, are as follows:
“First: An appeal should not, on principle, confer greater jurisdiction upon the jury than the original tribunal had. The scope of the Workmen’s Compensation Act is entirely within the range of compensation, and not a wagering adventure between the employer and the employee. It is possible that tbe employee might recover. He should not, then, profit at the expense of the state fund, if it is a *95 state fund ease, or at the expense of the employer, if it is a case of a self-insurer.
“If the verdict of the jury is prospectant in its scope, any adjustment which might accrue by reason of the recovery of the claimant, is impossible, because, on the theory contended for by defendant in error, the finding of the jury is a fixed, rigid and complete matter. If they find that the claimant is permanently and totally disabled, that verdict is incapable of correction, if the claimant recovers fully and the facts show that the jury was actually mistaken in their interpretation of the evidence.
“This is one of the situations, for the relief of which Section 1465-86 of the General Code was enacted. The point is, that the Industrial Commission could not have made a finding which was incapable of correction. It is illogical, therefore, that the jury should have greater power on appeal than the commission had.”

At the time the law creating the state insurance fund for the benefit of injured and the dependents of killed employees was passed, in the year 1911, and the state liability board of awards was created (102 Ohio Laws, 524), provision was made for an appeal, in certain cases, to the court of common pleas of the county where the injury was inflicted, and, if determined in the claimant’s favor, compensation was fixed within the limits and under the rules prescribed in the law; and the judgment so rendered was paid by the board of awards out of the state insurance fund in the same manner as its own awards were paid.

The law as amended and in force at the time this accident occurred, and therefore applicable to it, *96 was passed in the year 1919 (108 Ohio Laws, pt. 1, 322). This law gave the right of appeal to a claimant against an employer who had duly elected to pay compensation direct to his injured employee, if the commission denied his application.

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

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
165 N.E. 586, 31 Ohio App. 91, 1929 Ohio App. LEXIS 611, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/goodyear-tire-rubber-co-v-mcguffin-ohioctapp-1929.