Jackson Monument Co. v. Industrial Commission

265 N.W. 63, 220 Wis. 390, 1936 Wisc. LEXIS 265
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 4, 1936
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 265 N.W. 63 (Jackson Monument Co. v. Industrial Commission) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jackson Monument Co. v. Industrial Commission, 265 N.W. 63, 220 Wis. 390, 1936 Wisc. LEXIS 265 (Wis. 1936).

Opinion

Fritz, J.

The appeal in Case No. 141 is by the Jackson Monument Company and one of its insurance carriers, the Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Company, from a circuit court judgment entered May 31, 1935, confirming an interlocutory award made on September 2, 1933, by the Industrial Commission, which granted workmen’s compensation to Otto Friberg for compensable disability sustained [393]*393by him by reason of silicosis and pulmonary tuberculosis superimposed thereon, which was an occupational disease growing out of and incident to his employment by the Jackson Monument Company.

The appeal in Case No. 140 is by the Jackson Monument Company and one of its insurance carriers, Hardware Mutual Casualty Company, from a circuit court judgment entered June 6, 1935, confirming an award made on March 6, 1935, by the Industrial Commission, granting a death benefit to Tekla Friberg, the dependent widow of Otto Friberg, who died on July 1, 1934, as the result of that occupational disease.

The final award granting the death benefit was based on the evidence which was before the commission when it made the interlocutory award and also on additional evidence, supplemental to that which was submitted originally. However, in each instance, the evidence upon which the award was based conclusively established the following facts: During the period of eleven years that Otto Friberg was in the employ of the Jackson Monument Company, and while he and his employer were subject to the provisions of the Work-, men’s Compensation Act, he was exposed to- silica dust to such an extent that he. contracted, as a result- of exposure arising out of that employment, an occupational disease, viz., silicosis with pulmonary tuberculosis superimposed thereon. While the employer’s plant was closed down temporarily from December 3, 1932, to March 13, 1933, because of lack of work and the usual annual holiday shutdown, Friberg sustained compensable disability in that, as the result of the occupational disease which he had contracted as stated above, he was confined to his bed for several days_ commencing about December 11, 1932, and during that period he was wholly unable to perform any work whatsoever. During that shutdown, there was no work for any of the employees of the plant, including Friberg, but none of them quit or was [394]*394discharged, and it was the employer’s intention to give Fri-berg, as well as its other employees, work as soon as operations were resumed at its plant. The nature and extent of Friberg’s disease and his resulting condition and inability to perform any work during that period, and the facts and circumstances in respect to the continuance of his status as an employee during all of that temporary shutdown, were such that he clearly became entitled to the payment of workmen’s compensation by the Jackson Monument Company under the rule applied in Kannenberg Granite Co. v. Industrial Comm. 212 Wis. 651, 250 N. W. 821; Michigan Quartz Silica Co. v. Industrial Comm. 214 Wis. 289, 252 N. W. 682; Michigan Quartz Silica Co. v. Industrial Comm. 214 Wis. 492, 253 N. W. 167.

However, during that temporary shutdown, the employer changed compensation insurance carriers. The Hardware Mutual Casualty Company was the carrier up to February 1, 1933; and the Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Company went on that risk on February 6, 1933. As the result of that change during the shutdown, the particular time at which Friberg sustained his first compensable disability, as the result of that occupational disease, became a matter of controlling significance in determining which of those insurers was liable on the risk. The Industrial Commission’s interlocutory award on September 2, 1933 (holding the Employers Mutual Liability Insurance Company liable as insurer), was based upon its findings that “the first compensa-ble disability . . . occurred on and following, February 7, 1933; that the time of injury was February 7, 1933; . . . that the injury has resulted in total disability from said date to the date o.f last hearing on July 25, 1933, inclusive, and was continuing at said last date; that the silicotic condition, at least, is permanent, and that there is a permanent disability resulting from the injury.” On the other hand, the commis[395]*395sion’s death benefit award on March 6, 1935 (holding the Hardware Mutual Casualty Company liable as insurer), was based on its findings that “on or about December 11, 1932, Otto Friberg became ill and spit up about a half a tea cup of blood; that he went to Dr. Ottow’s office at that time where he was examined and advised to return home and go to bed until the bleeding stopped when he was to return for X-rays; that Otto Friberg remained in bed at home four or five days at that time, and that he continued to be totally disabled because of pulmonary tuberculosis superimposed on silicosis up to the time of his death on July 1, 1934.” Those findings are obviously inconsistent. The circuit court in entering judgment on May 31, 1935, confirming the interlocutory award, said that it probably would not have made the finding which was made by the commission, but it was of the opinion that it could not be said that there was no credible evidence to sustain the commission’s finding. However, subsequently, in entering judgment on June 6, 1935, confirming the death benefit award, the court concluded that, as there was additional testimony which more clearly showed that Friberg became disabled before February 7, 1933, and as there was credible evidence to sustain the commission’s later finding, the court was likewise compelled to sustain that finding as to the date of disability, and that it did so “with a much clearer conscience than in the Otto Friberg Case.”

The court rightly sustained that later finding. However, it was in error in concluding that there was credible evidence to support the commission’s original finding that. the first compensable disability did not occur until on February 7, 1933. On the contrary, neither the evidence which was before the commission at the time of making that original finding, nor that evidence in conjunction with the evidence subsequently submitted as basis for the commission’s death benefit award, justifies finding otherwise than that the first [396]*396compensable disability occurred on about December 11, 1932, and that that disability continued thereafter up to the date of the interlocutory award without any further exposure or new onset of the occupational disease which had caused it in December, 1932. A finding to the effect last stated is required by the record on which each of the awards was based, because there is no credible evidence which refutes, in any material respect, the existence of the following facts which were conclusively established and which leave no room for any finding to the contrary. In August, 1932, Friberg first noticed difficulty with his lungs, was short of breath, and consulted Dr. Ottow, his family physician. On about December 11, 1932, he had a severe hemorrhage, coughed up a cupful of blood, and went to Dr. Ottow's office for examination. There he coughed up blood, his sputum was bright red, and Dr. Ottow then found that he had a fever; that his hemorrhage was caused by the encroachment of the tubercular infection into the wall of a blood vessel; that his physical condition was worse then than it had been in August, 1932; and that he was totally disabled in December, 1932. Dr. Ottow then ordered him to' go to bed, which he did for several days on which he was so weak that he had to stay in bed and was not physically able to work. Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
265 N.W. 63, 220 Wis. 390, 1936 Wisc. LEXIS 265, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jackson-monument-co-v-industrial-commission-wis-1936.