Karle v. Board of County Commissioners

366 P.2d 241, 188 Kan. 800, 1961 Kan. LEXIS 357
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedNovember 10, 1961
Docket42,476
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 366 P.2d 241 (Karle v. Board of County Commissioners) 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
Karle v. Board of County Commissioners, 366 P.2d 241, 188 Kan. 800, 1961 Kan. LEXIS 357 (kan 1961).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Robb, J.:

This is an appeal from an award of the commissioner in a workmen s compensation case where the workman died as a result of a coronary thrombosis which it was claimed arose out of and in the course of his employment. Respondents appealed to the district court, which affirmed the award of the commissioner, and the appeal to this court followed.

Alan Dewey Burns, the deceased workman, had no dependents entitled to weekly payments of compensation and the award of the commissioner provided for payment of medical expenses in the amount of $374.00, funeral allowance of $450.00 to be paid to the decedent’s estate, and for payment of $500.00 to the second injury fund.

[801]*801Our attention is first called to a motion of the claimant, appellee here, who is the married daughter of decedent, to dismiss the instant appeal of the respondents for the reason that the filing of the written notice of appeal with the clerk of the district court within twenty days after the final order of the district court was not sufficient to make and perfect the appeal because the notice of appeal was without acknowledgement of service, without waiver of proof, and without proof of service. The short and simple answer to this contention is that we do not borrow from the code of civil procedure in the determination of a workmen s compensation proceeding and the notice of appeal herein was sufficient under G. S. 1959 Supp., 44-556. In Souden v. Rine Drilling Co., 150 Kan. 239, 92 P. 2d 74, the following appropriate statement was made:

“The workmen’s compensation act is a comprehensive enactment, complete in itself, with a simplified procedure designed to speed the settlement of claims and avoid the delay as well as the expense of litigation. The rules of the civil code are not applicable to compensation proceedings.” (p. 241.)

Substantially the same statement has been made in numerous subsequent cases and a repetition of all the citations would only be burdensome to this opinion. The result is the motion of appellee to dismiss the appeal is overruled.

Decedent 'was a truck driver for the board of county commissioners of Kearny county in the road department and on February 28, 1959, between 7:00 and 8:00 a. m., in accord with his usual duties, he was servicing his truck preparatory to hauling some sand. These duties included checking the tires, filling the gas tank, and checking the oil and water. In the latter two duties* he would have to lift the spring-loaded hood of the truck with a little shove. According to Bill Fross, a fellow employee, decedent had reached the point of putting oil in the truck because when Fross later returned to the truck, after having taken decedent to the hospital, the filter oil can was still in the spout of the truck and the hood was open so that it was while decedent was putting oil in the engine that he left the truck, went from the yard into the shop where Bill Fross and another employee were at the time, and told them he “wasn’t feeling good.’’ He was pale but Fross testified he did not think he was in too bad a shape because he “didn’t look too bad.” On the suggestion of Fross, decedent went into the office and sat down in a chair for approximately thirty minutes. Fross went outside and he and a Mr. Oakley were standing just outside the door when de[802]*802cedent came out of the office and stated that he felt better but after standing there a couple of minutes he said, “Somebody help me, I am going to faint [or collapse].” The witness was not certain which word decedent used. Fross and Oakley grabbed decedent who said, “Somebody take me to a doctor,” and after they had started, he said, “You better take me to the hospital,” which they did. Fross stayed with decedent until Doctor Sabo arrived.

In getting into the car en route to the hospital decedent complained of his right arm and his chest hurting him. He was in lots of pain and there were tears coming out of his eyes.

Patricia L. Jones, daughter of decedent and sister of claimant, testified as to the amounts of the bills of the Kearny county hospital, of Doctor R. A. Sabo, and of the Davis Funeral Home and also testified she visited her father in the hospital about twenty minutes before 8:00 a. m. on February 28,1959. She asked him what had happened and he told her he had been putting oil into a truck when he had this awful pain. He got down and sat in the truck for a while. Later that day and on the next day Patricia had further conversations with her father.

On cross-examination Patricia testified he told her about going in and sitting in the office and then a second pain, or another one, hit him when he got up and the men caught him. He had said, “Get me somewhere.” He had not told her that after the first pain he had asked somebody to take him to the hospital but had only made that request after the pain had hit him just outside the door of the office.

No autopsy was performed in this case.

On March 5, 1959, at approximately 1:35 p. m. decedent died as a result of anterior coronary infarction which cause of death was determined by x-rays, electrocardiograms, and transaminase tests given him in the interim between February 28 and March 5, 1959. Doctor Sabo, who stated he treated between twenty and twenty-five coronary patients a year, testified that these tests were sufficient to substantiate his opinion that the work decedent had done on the job the morning of February 28 had precipitated the attack. There was much more testimony by Doctor Sabo in regard to his opinion as to the cause of death — on both direct and cross-examination and on redirect and recross-examination — which brought out the fact that he had been a physician and surgeon since 1943 and also that he had treated decedent since January 26, 1952, but his records [803]*803showed no coronary complaints or symptoms or that decedent had ever been examined by him for such symptoms.

Appellants’ witness, Doctor Gary B. Wood, testified he had practiced medicine since 1946 and had specialized in internal medicine since 1952. He took a directly opposite view of the cause of death from that taken by Doctor Sabo by testifying that physical exertion has a very unimportant part to play in the onset of a coronary thrombosis.

Both doctors were subjected to very thorough and capable direct and cross-examination by counsel in this case. The commissioner heard the witnesses, made the award and decided the only issue involved which was whether the employee sustained personal injury by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. He did so find and further found that this aggravation of a pre-existing condition resulted in decedent’s death on March 5, 1959. The respondents below, appellants here, and their insurance carrier were ordered to pay the Kearny county hospital in Lakin $299.00; to pay Doctor Sabo $75.00; (G. S. 1949, 44-513) to pay to decedent’s estate funeral benefits in the sum of $450.00 under G. S. 1957 Supp., 44-510 [2] [d], then applicable; and awarded $500.00 to the workmen’s compensation commissioner for the second injury fund pursuant to G. S. 1949, 44-570. The commissioner further found that decedent had no dependents fully or in part dependent upon him but that the limitation of compensation to $750.00 provided in G. S. 1959 Supp., 44-510 (2) (a) did not apply to funeral expenses or to the second injury fund and made his award accordingly.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Gannon v. State
368 P.3d 1024 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 2016)
Ford v. Robert S. Wise, Inc.
451 P.2d 251 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1969)
Janousek v. Western Star Mill Co.
440 P.2d 616 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1968)
Walker v. Davis Van & Storage Co.
424 P.2d 473 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1967)
Hays v. Underwood, Administrator
411 P.2d 717 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1966)
Brown v. East Side National Bank
411 P.2d 605 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1966)
Karle v. Board of County Commissioners
366 P.2d 241 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
366 P.2d 241, 188 Kan. 800, 1961 Kan. LEXIS 357, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/karle-v-board-of-county-commissioners-kan-1961.