Hedges Manufacturing Co. v. Worley

442 S.W.2d 624, 223 Tenn. 102, 1969 Tenn. LEXIS 393
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJune 13, 1969
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 442 S.W.2d 624 (Hedges Manufacturing Co. v. Worley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hedges Manufacturing Co. v. Worley, 442 S.W.2d 624, 223 Tenn. 102, 1969 Tenn. LEXIS 393 (Tenn. 1969).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Creson

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Plaintiffs in error, Hedges Manufacturing Co. and Aetna Casualty & Surety Co., appeal from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Hamilton County, Division 4, entered January 6, 1969, which set aside a judgment entered December 9, 1968, in the same cause. The judgment appealed from awarded to defendant in error Curtis A. Davis permanent partial workmen’s compensation benefits of $5,040.00, as against plaintiffs in error herein, and permanent total workmen’s compensation benefits of $8,818.00, as against the Second Injury Fund.

Curtis Davis, in 1938, sustained a 70% permanent partial disability as a result of a gunshot wound in his spine and left hip. He subsequently recovered sufficiently to enable him to work.

[105]*105Despite his disability, Davis was employed in 1956 by Samuel Stamping and Enameling Company of Chattanooga, Tennessee. Davis continued to work for that company and for its successor, plaintiff in error Hedges Manufacturing Co., until August, 1967, when he was injured while working in the course and scope of his employment. He sought workmen’s compensation benefits under the Tennessee law in a petition filed July 19, 1968.

Upon hearing of the cause, the trial court found (1) that the injury which Davis sustained in August, 1967, alone, left Davis 30% permanently partially disabled, (2) that, as a result of both the 1938 and the 1967 injuries, Davis is now 100% permanently and totally disabled, and (3) that Davis, as a result of the 1967 injury, was paid, prior to filing of this action, $2,676.25 for medical expenses and $2,142.00 as temporary total disability benefits by Hedges Manufacturing Co. and its insuror. The trial court concluded that Davis was entitled to recover from the Second Injury Fund under the provisions of T.C.A. sec. 50-1027.

The judgment of the trial court, entered December 9, 1968, was that Davis was entitled to recover $16,000.00, the maximum allowable under the Tennessee Workmen’s Compensation law. The amount awarded was payable as follows: (1) from the Second Injury Fund, $11,200.00, as 70% of the total award, and (2) from Hedges Manufacturing Co. and its insuror, $2,658.00, as 30% of the total award after allowing a credit of $2,142.00 for temporary total disability benefits previously paid by Davis’ employer and its insuror.

Defendant in error Charles Worley filed a motion to set aside the above-described judgment on the ground that the respective liability of the parties had been in[106]*106correctly computed, “in that credit for ‘temporary total disability payments’ was given to * * * Aetna Casualty & Surety Company.” The motion insisted that Davis should recover $5,040.00 from the employer and its in-suror, and $8,818.00 from the Second Injury Fund.

Finding merit in the motion of defendant in error Worley, the trial court amended its judgment. The judgment appealed from, entered January 6, 1969, awarded benefits to Davis, as follows:

“7. That, prior to the filing of this action, petitioner was paid, by and on behalf of the defendants Hedges Manufacturing Company and Aetna Casualty and Surety Company, the sum of Two Thousand One Hundred and Forty-Two Dollars ($2,142.00), as ‘temporary total disability benefits’ on account of petitioner’s injury of August 14, 1967, as hereinabove described,
8. That petitioner is entitled to recover of the defendant Aetna Casualty and Surety Company the sum of Five Thousand and Forty Dollars ($5,040.00), as compensation for petitioner’s permanent partial disability suffered as a result of his injury of August 14, 1967, the same being computed as follows: Forty Two Dollars ($42.00) per week for One Hundred and Twenty (120) weeks (30 per cent of 400 weeks).
9. That petitioner is entitled to recover of the ‘Second Injury Fund’, the sum of Eight Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighteen Dollars ($8,818.00), as compensation for petitioner’s permanent total disability suffered as a result of petitioner’s injury of August 14, 1967, and petitioner’s previous permanently disabling injury, the same being computed as follows: the balance of Sixteen Thousand Dollars ($16,000.00), the [107]*107maximum amount recoverable by a petitioner under the Workmen’s Compensation Laws of Tennessee, after petitioner has recovered of defendants Hedges Manufacturing Company and A'etna Casualty and Surety Company the sums of Two Thousand One Hundred and Forty-Two Dollars ($2,142.00) as ‘temporary total disability benefits’ and Five Thousand and Forty Dollars ($5,040.00) as ‘permanent partial disability benefits ’.
IT IS THEREFORE ORDERED, ADJUDGED AND DECREED that the petitioner, Curtis A. Davis, have and recover of the defendants Hedges Manufacturing Company and Aetna Casualty and Surety Company the sum of Five Thousand and Forty Dollars ($5,-040.00), and of the ‘Second Injury Fund’ the sum of Eight Thousand Eight Hundred and Eighteen Dollars ($8,818.00).”

Plaintiffs in error excepted to the judgment of the trial court and perfected an appeal to this Court. Three assignments of error have been filed, as follows:

1. The trial'court erred in entering the amended judgment to the extent that said amended judgment entitled the defendant Treasurer of the State of Tennessee to take as credit Two Thousand One Hundred Forty-Two Dollars ($2,142.00) already paid by the named defendants and to apply said amount to the payment of the seventy percent (70%) of the petitioner’s permanent total disability, which seventy percent (70%) was adjudged to be payable out of the Second Injury Fund.
2. The trial court erred in depriving the named defendants of a credit in the amount of Two Thousand One Hundred Forty-Two Dollars ($2,142.00), which [108]*108had already been paid by them to tbe petitioner in tbe nature of temporary total disability, but instead tbe court’s order required tbem to pay in addition to said temporary total disability, thirty percent (30%) permanent disability to tbe petitioner.
3. Tbe court erred in computing tbe named defendant’s liability insofar as tbe court computed said defendants’ percentag*e of liability by calculating their thirty percent (30%) by taking thirty percent (30%) of four hundred (400) weeks, namely — one hundred twenty (120) weeks, and multiplying said number of weeks by Forty-Two Dollars ($42.00). The court should have taken thirty percent (30%) of tbe maximum recoverable by law, namely — of Sixteen Thousand Dollars ($16,000;.00).”'

On appeal, no party to tbe instant case questions tbe judgment of the trial court as to whether an award to Davis is proper. Tbe controversy, rather, poses the questions (1) who shall pay tbe award, and (2) in what proportion or amount.

The Workmen’s Compensation law of Tennessee contains a schedule of injuries to the body which governs as to what award, if any, shall be made to an injured employee. Under this statutory system, such award is not measured by diminution of the employee’s earning capacity. The award is measured by the value fixed in the statute or a percentage thereof in the case of partial disability. See T.C.A. sec. 50-1007; Catlett v. Chattanooga Handle Co. (1932), 165 Tenn. 343, 55 S.W.2d 257; New Jellico Coal Co. v. Gilburth (1948), 187 Tenn.

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Bluebook (online)
442 S.W.2d 624, 223 Tenn. 102, 1969 Tenn. LEXIS 393, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hedges-manufacturing-co-v-worley-tenn-1969.