Hammersla v. Price

190 So. 2d 765, 1966 Fla. LEXIS 3324
Supreme Court of Florida·Decided October 5, 1966·No. No. 34727·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

DREW, Justice.

This petition for certiorari controverts an order of the commission vacating an award of compensation for fifty percent permanent partial disability.

At the outset we think it appropriate to repeat what this Court said in Hardy v. City of Tarpon Springs, Fla.1955, 81 So.2d 503, concerning the respective duties of the deputy commissioner, the full commission and this Court with reference to review of workmen’s compensation cases. In the foregoing case we observed:

“The Deputy Commissioner is required by statute, in his order allowing or rejecting a claim, to set forth 'a statement of the findings of fact and other matters pertinent to the questions at issue.’ (Italics added.) Section 440.25(3) (c), F.S. 1953, F.S.A. These findings of fact when supported by competent, substantial evidence cannot be upset. United States Casualty Co. v. Maryland Casualty Co., Fla.1951, 55 So.2d 741.
“The Full Commission, in reviewing an order of a Deputy Commissioner, has the duty to determine whether his findings of fact are supported by the evidence and to determine whether the order based thereon is correct under the law. See Naranja Rock Co., Inc. v. Dawal Farms, Inc., Fla. 1954, 74 So.2d 282.
“This Court upon review of a final order of the Full Commission has the duty of determining whether the Commission properly fulfilled its function with reference to the evidence to support the findings and the law applied to the findings. See Wilson v. McCoy Mfg. Co., Fla.1954, 69 So.2d 659.”

We believe the deputy commissioner’s order in this case meets every requirement of the statutes and of the opinions of this Court. The conclusions he reached were, in our opinion, supported by competent, substantial evidence and the result he reached accorded with logic and reason.

The evidence establishes that the claimant was about forty years of age at the time of the industrial accident and has a sixth grade education. It further shows that he had enjoyed good health and all of his adult life had worked primarily in manual pursuits requiring physical labor. After the industrial accident, and according to the record because of it, he suffered severely from his neck and low back, became extremely nervous, his speech was seriously affected, he lost weight, was required to wear a back support almost constantly, and was under medication. The medical evidence established claimant’s permanent partial disability of the body as a whole of 20% from a psychoneurosis and 5% from the orthopedic injury.

The testimony was further that since the accident he had worked for a while at a roadside stand where he sold tomatoes, cabbages and other vegetables. In addition to this, he peddled these vegetables from door to door. He also did some work about the house and worked on automobiles adjusting [767] valves and carburetors. He distributed literature to the members of the church to which he was connected and other interested persons and was compensated to a small extent for this work. All of these factors were taken into consideration by the deputy commissioner who concluded on this point “As to claimant’s loss of wage earning capacity, I find that based on the education, the work record, industrial training, the findings of the doctors, as well as my observations of the claimant made at the hearing and other testimony, the claimant has sustained a loss of 50% of his wage earning capacity.”

The full commission in its order remanded the cause to the deputy commissioner for a re-determination of the proper amount of permanent partial disability which was directly attributable to the compensable accident in the light of the variables announced in Ball v. Mann, Fla.1954, 75 So.2d 758, and Southern Bell Telephone & Telegraph Company v. Bell, Fla. 1959, 116 So.2d 617.

Concluding, then, that the evidence in this case is competent and substantial and supports the deputy’s order, it becomes our responsibility upon review, as noted in Hardy v. Tarpon Springs, supra, to determine “whether the commission properly fulfilled its functions with reference to the evidence to support the findings and the law applied to the findings.” It is our view that the full commission did not observe its obligation “to determine whether his findings of fact were supported by the evidence and to determine whether the order based thereon is correct under the law,” but instead substituted its judgment of the facts for those of the deputy commissioner. It is also pertinent to note that one of the commissioners in his dissent reached the same conclusion.

The employer raises another point which we must confess has not heretofore been presented to this Court in a workmen’s compensation case. The question revolves around the proposition of whether the claimant should be examined by a psychiatrist other than the one who had seen him at the time of the hearing on the claim. It basically involves the question of whether the deputy commissioner abused his discretion concerning the matter. In the deputy’s order we find the following statement:

“The carrier made an oral motion to have the claimant examined by an independent psychiatrist, but at the time of the hearing withdrew its request for said independent examination and both parties stipulated that the matter might be completed upon the testimony of the claimant, the deposition of the expert witness, Dr. Edgar A. P. Kellerman, and the various medical reports of the other doctors introduced in evidence.”

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Hammersla v. Price, 190 So. 2d 765, 1966 Fla. LEXIS 3324 (Fla. 1966).

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