Guest Coal Co. v. Industrial Commission

155 N.E. 326, 324 Ill. 268
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1927
DocketNo. 17923. Reversed and remanded.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 155 N.E. 326 (Guest Coal 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
Guest Coal Co. v. Industrial Commission, 155 N.E. 326, 324 Ill. 268 (Ill. 1927).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Farmer

delivered the opinion of the court:

This writ of error was allowed by this court for the purpose of reviewing a judgment of the circuit court of St. Clair county which confirmed an award of the Industrial Commission.

Joseph Reck filed with the Industrial Commission an application for the adjustment of his claim for compensation, which he charged arose out of an accidental injury received by him on January 7, 1924, while employed as a loader in the mine of the Guest Coal Company. There appears to have been a partial hearing before an arbitrator on September 4, 1924, and a final hearing before a second arbitrator on May 12, 1925. A stipulation was entered into between the parties prior to the hearing, whereby the only questions involved were the nature and extent of the injury and the amount of compensation due, if any. After the hearing the arbitrator awarded Reck $16 per week for 58-3/7 weeks, that being the period of temporary total incapacity for work, and the further sum of $9.82 per week for 10 weeks, under paragraph (d) of section 8 of the Workmen’s Compensation act, because the injury had caused the employee to become partially incapacitated from pursuing his usual line of employment. The arbitrator also found the sum of $715.44 had been paid on account of the alleged injury. The employee caused the decision of the arbitrator to be reviewed by the Industrial Commission during September, 1925. The commission, after hearing very little additional evidence, ordered the employer to pay compensation to Reck at the rate of $16 per week for 58-3/7 weeks, the period of temporary total incapacity for work, and thereafter the further sum of $7.11 per week for 357-4/7 weeks for permanent partial incapacity from pursuing his usual and customary employment, as provided by paragraph (d) of section 8 of the act. The cause was taken by certiorari to the circuit court of St. Clair county, where the award made by the commission was confirmed. Upon the coal company’s petition a writ of error has been allowed.

The proof presented at the hearings before the arbitrator was substantially as follows: Joseph Reck, who was twenty-nine years old, had been working for the Guest Coal Company about a year and had worked every day the mine operated. He and his buddy were loading coal in the mine and had to push a loaded coal car out so as to get an empty one in place to load. While they were pushing the loaded car out and were going over a switch the car jumped off the track. Reck and his buddy tried to lift the loaded car back on the track, and just as they had the weight Reek’s right foot slipped and something snapped right in the small of his back. He could not lift any more. His back felt like it was broken and he could hardly stand up. Later he came out of the mine and went home. Next morning he went back to the mine and told them he was going to a doctor. He went to Dr. Duey, who strapped him up and gave him electrical treatments. After going to Dr. Duey about every other day for six or seven weeks he was sent to St. Mary’s Hospital, at East St. Louis, where Dr. Siegal and Dr. McQuillan took X-ray pictures and made an examination about March 28, 1924. Reck then went home and during that summer did “little odds and ends,” and also worked for his father-in-law, putting up a filling station. The work he did was chiefly all kinds of carpenter work and assisting in fitting and cutting the pipes. He was engaged in this employment about five weeks. Thereafter he went to Collinsville to be examined by Dr. Siegal and Dr. Bellinger. This was about October 15, 1924. Those doctors recommended that he have his tonsils taken out, his nose operated on, his appendix removed and his teeth fixed up. During December he had two bad teeth taken out, but all the work on his teeth was not finished at the time of the hearing. At the time of the medical examination at Collinsville in October, 1924, he was working at the carbon works, running an electric hoist and received $3.15 for nine hours’ work. His engagement there lasted about five weeks. He worked at the carbon, works until about the time the operations on his tonsils and nose were to be performed and quit that work because of these operations. He stated that to a certain extent the main reason he had not worked any more was because he could not get the work. His tonsils were removed by Dr. Short about January 12, 1925, and he had an operation on his nose about February 4, 1925. After his tonsils were removed he did little things around home, getting his garden ready, trimming grapes, and other odd jobs, and later in the summer he worked at a dentist’s. He also did caddying at a country club for four or five weeks prior to the hearing in May, 1925. He stated that after his tonsils were taken out, his nose worked on and his teeth fixed up there had been no change in the condition of his back; that when he stooped over and worked for fifteen or twenty minutes his back became sore and he could not do anything for four or five days until it healed up again. He stated he could lift nothing heavy. He further testified that he worked at the B. B. coal mine for three years before his employment with plaintiff in error, and while at work in the B. B. mine during February, 1922, he received an injury to his back, slightly above the present injury and on the opposite side. He was oil eleven weeks and received compensation on account of that injury, but had never had any further trouble with his back from that injury.

Dr. Siegal testified that he made a specialty of industrial surgery. Fie examined Reck at St. Mary’s Hospital during March, 1924, at which time X-ray pictures were taken under the doctor’s direction. He again examined the claimant in October, 1924, at which time he complained of pain in the lower back, which pain was dull at times and became aggravated on exertion. He tole? the doctor about receiving an injury to his back in February, 1922, when he was employed by the- B. B. Coal Company. The X-ray plates showed a decided bony production between the fourth and fifth lumbar and between the fifth lumbar and the sacrum. The bony production was very suggestive of an old fracture which had healed and showed, the fracture was of long standing. The doctor’s conclusion was that Reck was suffering from hyperthropic arthritis. The doctor found sources of infection in the nose, tonsils and appendix, which were active at the time. Reck had pronounced pyorrhea, with some abscess formations on some of his teeth. The doctor recommended the clearing up of these several sources of focal infection in order to bring about a recovery of the patient. The doctor was of opinion that the sources oí infection found by him might cause the arthritis present and the arthritis cause the pain in the back. An examination of Reck was made about a week before the hearing, which was after the operations performed upon his nose and throat and after some work had been done upon his teeth, and in the doctor’s opinion Reck seemed to bend and move more freely than before, although he still complained of pain. There was a decided improvement since the removal of the foci of infection. The doctor testified that the patient would continue to improve.

Dr. Short, a specialist in ear, nose and throat cases, testified that he examined Reck on November 17, 1924, at the request of Dr. Siegal. The examination showed a condition of flu, chronic tonsilitis and deviated nasal septum. The patient said he had his nose broken some years ago and was unable to breathe through his nose at times.

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155 N.E. 326, 324 Ill. 268, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guest-coal-co-v-industrial-commission-ill-1927.