Industrial Lloyds v. Denum

160 S.W.2d 966, 1942 Tex. App. LEXIS 164
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 1, 1942
DocketNo. 3986.
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 160 S.W.2d 966 (Industrial Lloyds v. Denum) 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
Industrial Lloyds v. Denum, 160 S.W.2d 966, 1942 Tex. App. LEXIS 164 (Tex. Ct. App. 1942).

Opinion

WALKER, Chief Justice.

This is a workman’s compensation case, with appellee, Grover James Denum, the employee, Lufkin Foundry & Machine Company, the employer, and on allegations of appellee’s petition, appellants, Industrial Lloyds, Industrial Underwriters, a copart-nership composed of Temple H. Morrow and Edward C. Hilman, attorney-in-fact for Industrial Lloyds, and Industrial Insurance Company, the compensation insurance carriers. On trial to a jury, judgment was for appellee against appellants, jointly and severally, for compensation as for total, permanent incapacity, for 401 weeks at the rate of $10.08 per week, to be paid in the lump sum of $3,356.98, with interest from the 11th day of August, 1941, at the rate of six per cent per annum, and with costs, from which appellants have regularly prosecuted their appeal. Our workmen’s compensation law, Sec. 1 of Art. 8309, R.C.S.1925, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. Art. 8309, § 1 — see Texas Employers Ins. Ass’n v. Clack, 134 Tex. 151, 132 S.W.2d 399, where Sec. 1 of Art. 8309 is set out in full — provides three methods for computing the average weekly wage of the employee. The jury found that appellee’s average weekly wage could not be computed under subsections 1 and 2 of Sec. *967 1 of Art. 8309. Subsection 3 was sent to the jury by the following question, answered $16.80 per week:

“Special Issue No. 17.
“What sum of money, if any, do you find from a preponderance of the evidence would represent an average weekly wage of Grover James Denum in the same or a similar class of employment as that in which he was engaged on January 20, 1941, if any, which would under the evidence before you, be just and fair both to the Plaintiff and to the Defendant ?”

The court calculated appellee’s average weekly wage on the basis of the jury’s answer to special issue No. 17.

Appellants make the point that, on the undisputed evidence, appellee’s average weekly wage must be computed under subsection 2. As we understand their brief, this point rests primarily on the testimony of Mr. W. D. Winston, the secretary and treasurer of Lufkin Foundry & Machine Company; they bring forward the testimony of other witnesses, but such testimony is not contended by them to be controlling. Mr. Winston testified as follows on this point (Q. & A. reduced to narrative) :

“Mr. O. B. Barrington is one of the employees of Lufkin Foundry and Machine Company, and works as a helper. He worked mostly up here before January 1940; I could not tell unless you go by the date. He was working at the Trailer Plant as a helper. I wouldn’t be the judge of whether he was doing the same kind of work Grover Denum was doing, at the time Grover was injured; I don’t know. I don’t know what he was doing all the time. I wouldn’t attempt to tell the jury that O. B. Barrington was in the same class as Grover Denum. I wouldn’t tell the jury that he was engaged in the same or similar employment that Grover Denum was engaged in, unless I looked up the record; I wouldn’t say that now. I don’t know any other employee of Grover Den-um’s class who did work in that employment, or similar employment, 300 days, or close to 300 days, during the year immediately before January 1941; but I am sure we had some working; I can’t tell you offhand who they were. You went to my office several days ago and asked me about them; I worked this up afterwards; that was day before yesterday. You asked me whether we had such an employee, and I said I was afraid not, because they did not work regularly enough. I don’t know how many they brought from the old plant, but they brought every man from the old plant. They never laid anybody off. I understood you to say they went to work the year before; some of them had been working ten years; this is the only one that went to work in September after we took it over. I could not say that he — Mr. Barrington — was doing the same class of work that Mr. Denum was doing; they have different classes of helpers. (This witness then gave the number of days that Mr. Barrington worked each month from January 1940 to January 1941). Counting up the days that Mr. Barrington worked — I count them — it will be 278 days. (This witness then gave the total earnings of Mr. Barrington for the year immediately preceding appellee’s injury in the sum of $852.05, and on the data before' him testified that the (average daily wage of Mr. Barrington during that time, on the basis of 276 working days, was ‘a little over $3.08’).
“Q. His daily average wage was $3.08? A. No. The condition was different here in the new plant.
“Q. He wasn’t the same class employee as Grover Denum? A. He was the same over there.
“Q. If he were in the same class and engaged in the same or similar employment as Grover Denum and had worked substantially the whole of the year two hundred and seventy-six days during the time he was employed, according to your own figures, his average daily wage was $3.08? A. We have a better set up. It wouldn’t be as it is now.
“Q. During those days that he was employed at the plant during the year immediately preceding January 20, 1941, O. B. Barrington’s average daily wage, according to your figures, was $3.08? A. Yes, on that basis, $3.08.”

It seems to us clear that Mr. Winston’s testimony did not, as a matter of law, restrict appellee to subsection 2 as the basis for calculating his average weekly wage. In the first place, he testified that Mr. Barrington was not in the same class of employment with appellee, and again that Mr. Barrington worked only 278 days during the year immediately preceding ap-pellee’s injury. Jt can not be said as a matter of law that 278 days amounts to “substantially the whole of such immediately preceding year,” against the affirma *968 tive requirement of this section that the femp-loyee’s average annual wage shall consist of 300 times the average daily wage.

Appellants also contend that the jury’s answer of $16.80 per week to question No. 17, as being just and fair to both parties, is without support in the evidence. This contention is denied. Appellee was permitted to work five days per week, eight hours per day; certain employees of his class drew 35 cents per hour, and others with more skill drew 40 cents per hour. Appellee’s employer was under the provisions of the Federal Wage and Hour Law, 29 U.S.C.A. § 201 et seq.; this law does not limit the number of hours or days of work of an employee, but does provide for payment of over time when he works more than 40 hours per week. Therefore, appellants’ contention that appellee’s compensation rate under subsection 3 must be computed on the basis of five days per week, and 8 hours per day, is without support in the law. This proposition is ruled by Maryland Cas. Co. v. Drummond, Tex.Civ.App., 114 S.W.2d 356; Texas Employers Ins. Ass’n v. Clack, 134 Tex. 151, 132 S.W.2d 399. On appellants’. calculation, they say as a matter of law that appellee’s average weekly wage was $14; they say further that the greatest wage he could have possibly earned, under any circumstance, was $15 per week.

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160 S.W.2d 966, 1942 Tex. App. LEXIS 164, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/industrial-lloyds-v-denum-texapp-1942.