Gulf Oil Corporation v. Kyes

1943 OK 409, 151 P.2d 785, 194 Okla. 367, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 54
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 14, 1943
DocketNo. 31261.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1943 OK 409 (Gulf Oil Corporation v. Kyes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gulf Oil Corporation v. Kyes, 1943 OK 409, 151 P.2d 785, 194 Okla. 367, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 54 (Okla. 1943).

Opinion

PER CURIAM.

This is an original proceeding in this court brought by Gulf Oil Corporation, hereinafter referred to as petitioner, to obtain a review of an award which was made and entered on December 7, 1942, by a trial commissioner of the State Industrial Commission in favor of Loren Donald Kyes, hereinafter referred to as respondent.

The sufficiency of the notice of injury given by the respondent, and of the evidence to establish disability as the result of an accidental injury are the principal issues involved, although attention is also called to an error in the calculation in the amount of the award made for temporary total disability.

The essential facts are that on November 10, 1941, respondent verbally reported to his foreman an accident sustained on said date while unloading some sills. In the report so made respondent stated that he had wrenched some of the muscles in his back and that the injury was not a serious one. Respondent did not request any medical *368 attention and the foreman did not offer any such attention or direct respondent to anyone for examination. Respondent had a contract with a hospital in Shawnee which provided him and his family with certain benefits, and after quitting work on November 10, 1941, drove to Shawnee and went to the said hospital, where he had the doctor in charge examine and treat some bruises on two of the toes of his right foot and an abrasion on the ankle of said foot which respondent had not previously reported to his foreman. On the following day, November 11, 1941, respondent returned to his employment and worked the full day, and on said date a clerk in the office of the petitioner made out a written report of the accident as it had been previously described by the respondent to his foreman. On the following day, November •12, 1941, respondent informed the pe-tioner that he was leaving its employ with the expectation of getting more remunerative employment. Thereupon respondent was required to sign the accident report which had theretofore been made out by the petitioner’s clerk and which described merely the injury to the back. Respondent signed this report without making any mention of the injury to his toes and ankle and without advising that he had consulted his physician relative thereto and had obtained treatment for such injury. On November 13, 1941, respondent became ill and went to bed, and on November 14, 1941, his condition became so serious that he was taken to the hospital at Shawnee, where he was found to be suffering with a streptococcic infection of the blood stream and was kept under treatment until December 7, 1941, and then sent home. The hospital, on December 4. 1941, wrote petitioner and advised that respondent had been in said hospital under treatment since November 14, 1941, and in which letter inquiry was made relative to the record which should be set up relative to claim for compensation. This letter was received by petitioner on December 7, 1941, thereafter on December 9, 1941, respondent filed with the State Industrial Commission employee’s first notice of injury and claim for compensation and therein alleged an accidental injury to the toes and ankle of his right foot and to his back and a systemic infection which had resulted in angina pectoris and which had resulted in permanent disability. The petitioner received a copy of said notice from the commission on December 11, 1941. Petitioner immediately filed an answer in which it alleged that it had been given no notice of the injury to the toes and ankle, and that as a result it had not been given the required statutory notice and had been prejudiced by such failure; and, further, that respondent had not sustained an accidental injury as alleged by him, and that any disability which he may have had was not the result of any accidental injury.

At hearings held to determine liability and extent of disability the evidence was in agreement with respect to the fact that the notice verbal and written which respondent had given petitioner had not mentioned any injury to the foot, and that respondent had never re-ouested petitioner to furnish medical attention for the injury, but was in conflict with respect to whether the subsequent infection had resulted from accidental injury or other cause and with respect to whether such infection had resulted in any permanent disability, and more particularly in angina pec-toris, which the medical evidence of respondent tended to show that it had. The trial commissioner upon the evidence, substantially as above stated, made the following findings of fact and award:

“1. That on the 10th day of November, 1941, the claimant was in the employ of the respondent and engaged in a hazardous occupation, subject to and covered by the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Law, and that on said date he sustained an accidental personal injury, arising out of and in the course of his employment, consisting of an injury to right foot, back injury and angina pectoris.
“2. That the average wages of the claimant at the time of gaid accidental personal injury were $150.00 per month.
*369 “3. That by reason of said accidental injury, the claimant was temporarily totally disabled from the performance of ordinary manual labor from Nov. 14th, less the ñve-day waiting period to Feb. 26th, 1942.
“4. That as a further result of said injury the claimant has sustained 50 per cent permanent partial disability to the body as a whole, or 50 per cent of a permanent total disability.
“Upon consideration of the foregoing facts, the trial commissioner is of the opinion that the claimant is entitled to compensation in the sum of $333.00, being 18 weeks and 3 days, computed from Nov. 14th, 1941, less the five-day waiting period, to Feb. 26th, 1942, at the rate of $18.00 per week, by reason of his temporary total disability; and claimant is also entitled to compensation for a period of 250 weeks at the rate of $18.00 per week, on account of the 50 per cent permanent total disability to the body as a whole, due to said accidental injury, and that there is now due the claimant the sum of $738.00 being compensation computed from Feb. 26th, 1942 to Dec. 10th, 1942, same being 41 weeks at the rate of $18.00 per week.
“It is therefore ordered by the trial commissioner, That within twenty days from the date of filing this order the respondent pay to the claimant the sum of $333.00, being compensation for 18 weeks and 3 days beyond the five-day waiting period, or from Nov. 14th, 1941 to Feb. 26th, 1942, less the 5-day waiting period, at the rate of $18.00 per week, on account of temporary total disability, and in addition thereto pay claimant the sum of $738.00, being accrued compensation computed from Feb. 26th, 1942, to Dec. 10th, 1942, at the rate of $18.00 per week, and that respondent continue to pay the claimant compensation thereafter at the rate of $18.00 per week, until a period of 250 weeks, or the total sum of $4500.00 has been paid on account of the 50 per cent permanent partial disability to the body as a whole, due to said accidental injury.

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Bluebook (online)
1943 OK 409, 151 P.2d 785, 194 Okla. 367, 1943 Okla. LEXIS 54, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gulf-oil-corporation-v-kyes-okla-1943.