Home Ins. Co. of Indiana v. Banda

736 S.W.2d 812, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 8468
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedJuly 22, 1987
Docket04-86-00280-CV
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 736 S.W.2d 812 (Home Ins. Co. of Indiana v. Banda) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Home Ins. Co. of Indiana v. Banda, 736 S.W.2d 812, 1987 Tex. App. LEXIS 8468 (Tex. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

736 S.W.2d 812 (1987)

HOME INSURANCE COMPANY OF INDIANA, Appellant,
v.
Trinidad S. BANDA, Appellee.

No. 04-86-00280-CV.

Court of Appeals of Texas, San Antonio.

July 22, 1987.
Rehearing Denied September 22, 1987.

*813 Stephen F. White, San Antonio, for appellant.

Jerald L. Abrams, Eagle Pass, for appellee.

Before BUTTS, DIAL and CHAPA, JJ.

OPINION

BUTTS, Justice.

Home Insurance Company of Indiana appeals a judgment awarding Trinidad S. Banda compensation under the workers' compensation statute. TEX.REV.CIV. STAT.ANN. art 8306 et seq. (Vernon 1967).

On November 9, 1982, Banda fell from a truck while working for the City of Eagle Pass sanitation department. On November 14, 1982, he suffered a heart attack. The jury found that Banda received an injury on November 9, 1982, during the course of his employment, that the injury was a producing cause of total incapacity beginning November 14, 1982, and the duration of the total incapacity was permanent.

Appellant argues the record contains no evidence, or, alternatively, insufficient evidence including a "great weight and preponderance" point, that the fall on November 9 was a producing cause of Banda's heart attack on November 14. Appellant relies on the testimony of two doctors who stated that in their opinion the fall had nothing to do with Banda's heart attack. Appellant similarly challenges the finding that Banda received an injury on November 9.

However, the record contains the testimony of a third doctor, Dr. Arturo E. Batres, who treated Banda on November 11 and again on November 14, that in his opinion, based upon a reasonable medical probability, the fall "very likely triggered" Banda's heart attack on November 14. *814 Also in evidence is a memorandum written by Dr. Batres on November 14 which includes the following:

This 54 year old male (sic) presented to the emergency room on the night of present hospital admission because of chest pain. The patient reportedly had been well until five days prior to present hospital admission when he fell at work and began to experience left chest pain, this would last only a few minutes and then disappear. Two days prior to present hospital admission the patient developed pain in the back of his neck and was found to be hypertensive. On the day prior to present hospital admission the patient developed chest pain which would not go away. Because this did not clear after some home remedies (sic) the patient (sic) presented to the emergency room at night because of continued chest pain. (Emphasis added).

Further, the record contains a letter dated January 26, 1983, from Dr. Batres to Home Insurance Company stating, in part:

In a letter you sent me in December, you asked my opinion as to the relationship between the patient's heart attack to his fall on November 8th (sic). . . .

* * * * * *

When I saw the patient on November 11, 1982 he said that his chest pain had started two days before on November 9th. He didn't say anything about a fall then. When I learned that he fell at work on November 9th, I asked him about the fall and he said that the chest pain had started then. It did not last for a long time. By the 13th of November, the chest pain was more severe and remained.

* * * * * *

Development of chest pain immediately with the stress and strain of fall indicates increase in oxygen demands of heart setting off myocardial infarction. . . .

Dr. Batres' opinions provided a basis for the fact issue of causation. The jury thus had before it sufficient evidence to reasonably find that Banda's heart attack resulted from his fall at work. See Webb v. Western Casualty & Surety Company, 517 S.W.2d 529 (Tex.1974); Insurance Company of North America v. Kneten, 440 S.W.2d 52, 54 (Tex.1969); Western Casualty & Surety Company v. Gonzales, 506 S.W.2d 303, 312 (Tex.Civ.App.—Corpus Christi 1974), aff'd, 518 S.W.2d 524 (Tex. 1975).

Appellant also argues that there was no evidence or, alternatively, insufficient evidence that Banda's heart attack was a producing cause of total and permanent incapacity and that the jury finding to that effect was so against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence as to be clearly wrong and unjust.

At the time of trial Banda was fifty-seven years old. He had one year of schooling and neither spoke nor understood English. His work history prior to his heart attack was limited exclusively to jobs requiring heavy physical labor. Banda worked as a migrant laborer until 1974 when he began employment in the sanitation department of the City of Eagle Pass, a job requiring heavy lifting.

Following his heart attack and subsequent open-heart surgery in February 1983, Banda returned to work in May, 1983, and was restricted to light duties. He was hospitalized again in June. In September, the City abolished the sanitation department. However, the City re-hired Banda in December 1983. At the time of trial he was working as a dog catcher. Banda said he still felt weakness in his left arm.

At trial Dr. Batres testified that, based on his examinations and upon reasonable medical probability, "I don't think he will ever be able to do heavy-type work." Dr. Batres further testified that, as of the last time he examined him, Banda's heart condition was, in his opinion, a "permanent condition."

The record also contains a memorandum prepared on December 3, 1982, at the Nix Memorial Hospital in San Antonio, while Banda was in the care of Dr. Clyde Wagner, which states, "Longterm outlook is very guarded. It (sic) probable that because of the magnitude of this infarct (sic) *815 that he may never be able to return to work again."

The evidence showed that the only kind of work Banda had done before his heart attack was heavy physical labor. There was also evidence from two doctors that Banda would never be able to perform heavy labor again. The fact that Banda was earning money performing lighter work does not operate to preclude a jury finding that his injury was total and of permanent duration.

The term "total and permanent incapacity" does not imply that a worker must be unable to perform any kind of labor in order to recover the maximum benefits under the statute. Article 8306, et seq.; Texas Employers' Insurance Ass'n v. Mallard, 143 Tex. 77, 182 S.W.2d 1000 (1944). As this Court recently held:

A claimant need not show economical loss because of the injury; the fact that he continues to work and earn money is but one factor to be considered. [Citations omitted]. . . . The definition of total incapacity does not require that an injured person be reduced to a condition of complete and abject helplessness [in order to recover benefits for a total and permanent injury].

City of San Antonio v. Miranda, 683 S.W.2d 517, 520 (Tex.App.—San Antonio 1984, no writ); Texas General Indemnity Co. v. Cox, 544 S.W.2d 766, 768 (Tex.Civ.

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