Imperial Shirt Corporation v. Jenkins

399 S.W.2d 757, 217 Tenn. 602, 21 McCanless 602, 1966 Tenn. LEXIS 615
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 5, 1966
StatusPublished
Cited by24 cases

This text of 399 S.W.2d 757 (Imperial Shirt Corporation v. Jenkins) 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
Imperial Shirt Corporation v. Jenkins, 399 S.W.2d 757, 217 Tenn. 602, 21 McCanless 602, 1966 Tenn. LEXIS 615 (Tenn. 1966).

Opinions

Mr. Chief Justice Burnett

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a Workmen’s Compensation suit wherein the only question involved is whether or not the one year statute of limitations, T.C.A. sec. 50t1003 and sec. 50-1017, is applicable. The trial judge held that the action was not barred by the statute. We thus have the appeal of the employer. The question has been ably briefed and argued, and, after considering all the cases cited and making an independent investigation of the matter, we are now in a position to decide the case.

The accident to the employee happened on December 20, 1961, and the action herein was commenced by the filing of a summons and a petition on November 12, 1964. At the time of the accident Jenkins was in the [604]*604process of tilting a large box when he heard something-slip or pop in his back. On the same day, he consulted the plant nurse who sent him tc a local hospital where he was seen by a doctor. This doctor advised him to return for heat treatments which he did on one or two occasions within the space of a week or so after the accident of December 20th. Thereafter, he continued on his regular job for approximately two years. During the first year he missed only an occasional day from work because of his back. There were times when his back bothered him and times when he was free of pain. He next saw a doctor in the spring of 1963 when he consulted a chiropractor in Bowling Green, 'Kentucky. Thereafter he saw another doctor, a general practitioner in the town wherein he lived, who referred him to Dr. George Carpenter, an orthopedic specialist in Nashville. Upon recommendation of Dr. Carpenter and an associate of his, he spent a period of five days in the Baptist Hospital and an additional week at home prior to returning to work. This all happened in the spring and early summer of 1963. A series of x-rays were taken but no diagnosis of the difficulty was made at that time. Thereafter, he returned to work, but his condition was little better and his back became increasingly more painful until he Avas again referred to a Nashville specialist by a. local doctor. This time he was referred to a neurosurgeon, who after the performance of a myleogram, was definitely able to diagnose his condition as a herniated nucleus pulposis.

An operation was performed on February 10, 1964, and the ruptured disc repaired. Petitioner remained in the hospital for eleven days and was thereafter required to be off from work until about May, 1964. When he [605]*605returned to work in May, lie was told there was no work available and was given an unemployment slip.

The testimony of this last specialist who examined him is to the effect that he diagnosed his condition on January 24, 1964, as above indicated, and that this was confirmed by a specialized type of diagnostic procedure. This specialist found the petitioner to be suffering a twenty (20%) per cent permanent disability to the body as a whole; he found that the employee had a residual atrophy in the leg, leaving his left low extremity some three centimeters smaller than his right. He was found to have weakness and discomfort in his legs and a limitation of movement and discomfort in his back and low back; This doctor also testifies that it was not uncommon for a herniated nucleus pulposis of this type to go undiagnosed for a period of years and that it was not at all certain that such a diagnosis could have been made immediately following this accident because certain key symptoms were apparently not present. This doctor likewise testified that it was not uncommon for a person to continue working although having suffered a herniated disc and that the pain experienced with such injuries varies with periods of increased pain and periods of relative improvement.

Under such a state of facts the trial court found, as follows:

“The Court finds that the petitioner was injured on December 20, 1961, while in the scope of his employment and although the petitioner knew that he suffered an injury of some kind and a disability it was not known or actually diagnosed until February 4th, 1964, * * * The Court finds that the injury resulted in damage to the left leg, I believe the doctor said the left leg [606]*606is three centimeters smaller than the right leg. Dr. Cobh estimates this disability at 20 per cent permanent disability to the body as a whole. The Conrt finds that the petitioner is disabled to that extent that 20 per cent. ’ ’

Thns it is, that the question of whether or not the limitation statute as applied in Workmen’s Compensation cases (T.C.A. sec. 50-1003 and see. 50-1017) is applicable. In Griffitts v. Humphrey, 199 Tenn. 528, 288 S.W.2d 1, we found that these two Sections must be construed together and that they must be liberally construed so that the limi-ation of one year begins to run from the time of com-menceability of loss rather than the time of the accident. In other words, we found under applicable statutory rules of construction these two statutes should be taken together and since the statute, T.C.A. sec. 50-1017, was a later enactment and for other reasons stated in the Griffitts opinion this one was the applicable statute to apply in considering the limit in these Workmen Compensation cases. In other words, we arrived at the conclusion that this was not just a limitation period from the accident but was a limitation period from the injury. Mr. Larson in his excellent work on Compensation, Yol. 2, sec. 78.41, page 261, has this to say in regard to the interpretation there given to such statutes:

“Yet the great majority of courts have been sufficiently impressed with the acute unfairness of a literal application of this language to read in an implied condition suspending the running of the statute until by reasonable care and diligence it is discoverable and apparent that a compensable injury has been sustained. ’ ’

In the same Section at page 262, he says this:

[607]*607“A fortiori, Ms claim, should not be barred when quali- . fled physicians have been unable to present him, with a diagnosis of his condition within the period of limitations. ’ ’

The record in the present case shows that this man after this injury worked on for approximately two years but did go to doctors who merely administered heat treatments. He went to two or three different kind of doctors and specialists and none of them found out what was the matter with him until the date the trial judge found the statute started to run, January 24, 1964. Thus it is that these statements of Mr. Larson become applicable.

Mr. Larson at sec. 78.42, page 263, of this same Volume, has this to say on the question here involved:

“Twenty-two states date the claim period from the 'accident’; most of the rest date it from the 'injury’. Under the ‘injury’ type of statute, there is now almost complete judicial agreement that the claim period runs from the time compensable injury becomes apparent.”

As said above, we in Griffitts decided under our statutes the “injury” period is the applicable theory upon which our statutes were enacted. Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
399 S.W.2d 757, 217 Tenn. 602, 21 McCanless 602, 1966 Tenn. LEXIS 615, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/imperial-shirt-corporation-v-jenkins-tenn-1966.