Haverhill Shoe Novelty Co. v. DiVona

107 A.2d 305, 82 R.I. 254, 1954 R.I. LEXIS 43
CourtSupreme Court of Rhode Island
DecidedJuly 30, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 107 A.2d 305 (Haverhill Shoe Novelty Co. v. DiVona) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Haverhill Shoe Novelty Co. v. DiVona, 107 A.2d 305, 82 R.I. 254, 1954 R.I. LEXIS 43 (R.I. 1954).

Opinion

Baker, J.

This is an employer’s petition brought under the workmen’s compensation act, general laws 1938, chapter 300, to review a preliminary agreement which it had [256]*256entered into with the respondent, formerly one of its employees, who sustained an injury arising out of and in the course of her employment by petitioner. After a hearing in the superior court a justice thereof granted the prayer of the petition and ordered that payments of compensation to respondent be suspended. From the entry of such decree she duly prosecuted her appeal to this court.

The decree contained the following finding of fact: “That the incapacity of the employee resulting from the injury of February 19, 1951, has ended insofar as that incapacity results from the injury, the nature and location of which are set forth in the preliminary agreement.”

In the agreement being reviewed, which was signed May 8, 1951, it is set out that the date of the accident was February 19, 1951; that the cause of the injury was “Operating power press taking piece out of press and stepped on foot pedal and press caught left index finger”; and that the nature and location of the injury was “Left index finger, distal phalanx, severe contusion and extensive loss of tissue from palmar surface.” It was provided that compensation be paid for the duration of total incapacity which under the agreement started May 3, 1951. It also appeared that a preliminary agreement of exactly the same import had previously been entered into by the parties on March 9, 1951 and had been terminated by a compensation agreement and settlement receipt stating that respondent had returned to work April 30, 1951.

It appears from the evidence that the accident happened as set out in the preliminary agreement and that the nature and location of respondent’s injury was also correctly stated therein. After being treated for a short time by two physicians, about May 10, 1951 she was referred to Dr. Louis A. Sage, an orthopedic specialist, who testified for respondent that he found the accident had caused a traumatic amputation of the tip of her left index finger which was sensitive; that on June 7, 1951 he operated on the tip of the finger [257]*257and removed a neuroma therefrom; that she improved for a time but later again suffered pain and further sensitiveness in her finger; and that thereafter on November 20, 1951 he reamputated the finger to just below the distal phalangeal joint and cut short the digital nerves so that they would retract below the tip.

The respondent improved substantially but about the middle of February 1952 there was pain in her finger and in her left arm. Thereafter she became worse and the pain increased extending into her shoulder and her hand at times became cold and moist. However, the motion of the finger was normal at that time and there was no swelling, but the hand was somewhat mottled and there was tenderness near the end of the stump on the palmar surface. The respondent became nervous and was much worried. Doctor Sage recommended that she go to another physician, whom he named, in order to have him inject novocain in the ganglion in the cervical region. The respondent did not wish to take this treatment, and on April 22, 1952 she was discharged by Dr. Sage when she said she wished to go to the Lahey Clinic. He did not see her thereafter.

In a short time she went to the Lahey Clinic in Boston and was sent to the New England Baptist Hospital where in the latter part of May 1952 a doctor amputated her left index finger to a point just distal to the proximal interphalangeal joint. In that hospital about the same time respondent had a sympathectomy which consisted of the removal of a ganglion on her spine, apparently for the purpose of ridding her of pain in her left shoulder, arm and hand. This operation was performed by a different doctor. After her release she went to the clinic occasionally to obtain certain medicines for her nerves and blood.

At the hearing respondent, who was thirty-one years old, was married and had no children, testified in substance that her hand, arm and back were painful; that she performed her household duties with difficulty; that she was [258]*258left-handed; that she could not hold things in that hand but dropped them; and that she did not feel able to do any work, especially with her left hand which becomes very cold. She was then receiving no treatment for her finger.

Doctor Herbert E. Harris, who testified for petitioner, examined respondent twice on behalf of its insurance carrier, the first time on May 15, 1952 just prior to respondent’s going to the Lahey Clinic, and the second time on October 27, 1952, several months after she had returned therefrom. Based on the latter examination Dr. Harris testified positively that, so far as her injured finger was concerned, in his opinion respondent could return to and do her former work as a press operator. He stated that her left index finger showed a well-healed scar; that the color of the finger was normal; that there was no tenderness to pressure at any point about the end or side of the phalanx; and that she had 90 degrees of flexion of the phalangeal joint. No doctor who had treated respondent in Boston was called as a witness and no deposition of any was submitted. A vice-president of the petitioner testified that respondent’s job as a press operator was open to her if she wished and that she could earn at least the same weekly pay which she received when she was injured.

It is clear that there was substantially uncontradicted legal evidence presented by Dr. Harris which supported the finding of fact of the trial justice contained in the decree appealed from, namely, that respondent’s incapacity had ended in so far as it resulted from the injury, the nature and location of which were set out in the preliminary agreement being reviewed. In such circumstances it is settled by statute and decision that such a finding is conclusive in the absence of fraud. G. L. 1938, chap. 300, art. Ill, §6. The petitioner’s contention is that this is determinative of the case.

As a matter of fact respondent does not seriously attack the above finding. Generally speaking her defense is based [259]*259on the proposition that the trial justice erred in not permitting her to show that following the sympathectomy she suffered pain and disability in her back, shoulder and arm to the extent of allegedly rendering her incapable of working, but that he limited her to evidence relating to the condition of her left index finger. She contends that such physical difficulties and incapacity as she now has are the direct result of the original injury to her finger.

An examination of the transcript shows that the trial justice was reasonably liberal in permitting the examination of witnesses, but that he drew the line on questions which apparently did not relate to the injury to respondent’s finger. Also it is clear that the trial justice ruled correctly in excluding certain excerpts from the records of the Lahey Clinic and the New England Baptist Hospital relating to respondent’s treatment in those places. Such excerpts were not properly identified when offered and moreover in the circumstances petitioner was entitled to the benefit of seeing the entire record.

In making his rulings and in deciding the case the trial justice, after carefully reviewing and considering related cases, relied upon the principle of law laid down in the case of Peters v. Monowatt Electric Corp., 78 R. I. 134.

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Related

DiVona v. Haverhill Shoe Novelty Co.
127 A.2d 503 (Supreme Court of Rhode Island, 1956)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
107 A.2d 305, 82 R.I. 254, 1954 R.I. LEXIS 43, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/haverhill-shoe-novelty-co-v-divona-ri-1954.