Justice v. Continental Can Co.

257 P.2d 564, 174 Kan. 539, 1953 Kan. LEXIS 342
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedMay 21, 1953
Docket39,044
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 257 P.2d 564 (Justice v. Continental Can Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Justice v. Continental Can Co., 257 P.2d 564, 174 Kan. 539, 1953 Kan. LEXIS 342 (kan 1953).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Wedell, J.:

This is an appeal by the employer, Continental Can Company, a corporation, and its insurance carrier, Liberty Mutual Insurance Company, in a workmen’s compensation case.

The case involves the loss of claimant’s left eye and a previous partial loss of vision in his right eye, both injuries having occurred in the course of claimant’s work for the same employer. Separate claims were filed for each injury. They were set for hearing before the commissioner on the same day. The claim involving the right eye was heard first. A separate award was made thereon for permanent partial disability. In the hearing involving the left eye the record pertaining to the right eye was also considered. This was done for the purpose of determining not only the extent of injury to the left eye but also the loss of the co-ordinate function of both eyes. It was stipulated these were among the issues to be tried in the left eye case.

In the left eye case the commissioner computed the compensation on the theory the workman had suffered permanent total disability. [541]*541He ordered payments of compensation to begin after the expiration of the period for which compensation had been awarded in the previous case involving injury to the right eye.

Continental Casualty Company was the employer’s insurance carrier at the time of the previous injury to the right eye. Liberty Mutual Insurance Company was the insurance carrier at the time of injury to the left eye. Separate' appeals to the district court were perfected from each award by the respondent employer and. the respective insurance carriers. The award involving the right eye was later paid and the appeal to the district court was dismissed on motion of the respondent employer and its insurance carrier.

The district court made no detailed findings but found generally for the claimant and adopted the findings and award of the commissioner. With this general background we return to the record made by the commissioner. He made a brief summary of the evidence in the left eye case, which evidence, where necessary, will be supplemented under treatment of some of appellants’ contentions. That summary reads:

“Prior to being employed by this respondent, this claimant was given a physical examination on May 28, 1949, by Dr. W. T. Read of Coffeyville. Tests relating to claimant’s eyes were made by the nurse in Dr. Read’s office. The records of his office, as a result of the nurse’s computation, reveal the claimant, at the time of his examination, to have a visual acuity of the right eye of 20/40, left eye 20/200. Claimant testified his job with the respondent was cleaning up the plant area. This involved picking up scrap lumber, dirt, metal and other debris and taking it to the dump. Some of the scrap material was loaded by hand. Dirt and other material was loaded with a hand shovel. Claimant testified that on January 25, 1952, about 2:30 or 3 o’clock in the afternoon of that day, he and a fellow workman were engaged in scooping crushed rock into a wagon with shovels. As his fellow workman threw a scoop full of this dust and crushed rock into the wagon a gust of wind blew dust particles in the direction of this claimant and some of those particles of dust entered his left eye. Claimant stated he reported the accident and injury to the nurse at the company dispensary and was directed by the nurse in charge there to Dr. Unruh for professional care.

“Dr. W. G. Gillett, physician and ophthalmologist of Wichita, Kansas, witness for claimant, testified he saw the claimant for the condition of the left eye initially on February 12, 1952, and continued to observe the condition daily until February 28, 1952, when he was obliged to remove the eye. The doctor was of the opinion the rock dust the claimant received in his eye on January 25, 1952, was directly responsible for the inflammatory condition and removal of claimant’s left eye. Claimant had received a prior injury to the right eye on August 28, 1951, and, as a direct result of that accident, suffered a visual acuity loss of the right eye of 64.25 per cent. Dr. Gillett stated that by reason of the prior loss of vision of the right eye and the total loss of the left eye by its re[542]*542moval, the claimant now suffers an impairment of the visual efficiency of the coordinate function of both eyes of 73.19 per cent.

“Dr. John W. Unruh, witness for respondent, testified by deposition that he saw the claimant January 26, 1952, and at that time the claimant was suffering from conjunctivitis of the left eye. He continued to treat the claimant for this condition to and until February 11 and the condition became progressively worse during that time. The doctor stated he felt this condition of the eye was due to infection and not trauma.”

The commissioner’s findings and award were:

“The Examiner finds that the claimant reported the accident of January 25, 1952, to the nurse at the company dispensary and to the company doctor on January 26, 1952, and therefore this respondent had due notice as provided by our statute; that the application for hearing herein was filed within 120 days of the date of the accidental injury and therefore written claim for compensation has been duly made.

“The Examiner further finds the claimant suffered an accidental injury on January 25, 1952, when particles of rock dust came in contact with his eye on that date and that said accidental injury was the direct cause of the loss of his left eye by enucleation and that said accidental injury arose out of and in the course of his employment; that by reason of the impairment of the visual efficiency of the coordinate function of both eyes, the claimant has a permanent partial disability of 73.19 per cent and, by reason of his wage being $62.40, he is entitled to compensation at the rate of $25 per week.

“The yardstick for computing the amount of compensation in this claim is set out in the case of Polston v. Ready Made Homes, 171 Kan. 336, since claimant herein has suffered the removal of his left eye as a result of the accident on which this claim is based and previously had suffered a 64.25 per cent loss of visual acuity of the right eye in an accident of August 28, 1951. That decision very pointedly stated that the 1951 Supplement to the General Statutes of 1949, 44-510 (3) (24) applies. Claimant is, therefore, entitled to compensation for a period of 415 weeks, less tire amount provided in the schedule of this section for his prior injury,’ of 70.68 weeks. This computation, therefore, entitles the claimant to an award of 344.32 weeks, that amount to be paid on a weekly basis commencing February 15, 1953, being the day following the date on which compensation being paid for the prior injury of August 28, 1951, ceases.

“The Examiner further finds the respondent and insurance carrier should pay the bill for professional service given this claimant by Dr. Gillett in the sum of $150 and should also pay the bill of St. Francis Hospital, Wichita, Kansas, in the sum of $64.95, in addition to the bill of Dr. Unruh which has previously been paid.

“AWARD

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Justice v. Continental Can Co.
257 P.2d 564 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1953)

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Bluebook (online)
257 P.2d 564, 174 Kan. 539, 1953 Kan. LEXIS 342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/justice-v-continental-can-co-kan-1953.