Kenyon v. Cunningham

1932 OK 804, 16 P.2d 867, 160 Okla. 229, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 751
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 6, 1932
Docket23790
StatusPublished

This text of 1932 OK 804 (Kenyon v. Cunningham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kenyon v. Cunningham, 1932 OK 804, 16 P.2d 867, 160 Okla. 229, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 751 (Okla. 1932).

Opinion

SWINDALL, J.

This is an original proceeding in this court to review an award of the State Industrial Commission made on the 28th day of May, 1932, in favor of T. Cunningham, claimant.

The claimant was injured December 14, 1928, while In the employment of respondent B. C. Kenyon, a building contractor. On that date he was shoveling mortar from a wheelbarrow on the ground to the first level of a scaffold, from which it was being conveyed by another employee to the brickma-son on the second level, when the mason threw his trimmings back onto the mortar board causing hot mortar to splash into claimant’s left eye. Claimant ducked and *230 turned and in so doing struck a prop of the scaffolding hitting it with his head at the inside corner of his left eye near his nose. Claimant received a severe blow — it knocked him off his feet, rendered himi unconscious, caused his nose to bleed, and temporarily blinded him. He was taken immediately to jDrs. Ferguson & Wails, who treated him for a short time.

On December 22, 192S, the parties executed a stipulation and receipt providing compensation for temporary total disability, on March 1, 1932, claimant filed a motion with the State Industrial Commission, alleging- that as a result of the injury he had suffered a permanent total loss of vision in his left eye and a permanent 50 per cent, partial loss of vision in his right eye, and asking compensation for both. After hearing the evidence, the Commission made its award wherein it found the jurisdictional facts, etc.

It found that:

“ * * * The claimant sustained an accidental personal injury on- December 14, 1928, being an injury to the left eye, caused by mortar being splashed In left eye. ”

And that:

“* * * The evidence shows that the claimant has sustained a change of condition in that he now has a 90 per cent, loss of vision to the left eye.”

It expressed its opinion, in part, as follows :

“That the claimant is entitled to the sum of $1,385.10 on account of the 90 per cent, loss of vision of the left eye sustained by him as a direct result of the accidental injury of December 14, 1928. * * *”

The order was entered accordingly. No finding was miade and no opinion expressed with respect to the right eye.

The petitioners herein assert only one proposition upon which they contend that the award should be vacated. It is as follows:

“There is no evidence 'in the record to support the finding that the claimant has a 90 per cent, loss of vision in the left eye due to the injury alleged to have been received on December 14, 1928.”

Dr. Theodore G. Wails, attending physician at the time of the accidental injury in 1928, and expert witness for petitioners, testified that he had carefully examined this claimant’s eyes in 1923, and found them then in substantially the same condition as they were when he examined them in 1932 preparatory to the trial of this cause. He stated that claimant ]had ia cataract of long standing in each eye, that the lens were not present, having been absorbed, and that the eyes had been operated upon prior to 1923. He observed the cataracts again in 1926, within a few hours after the accident. His vision tests in 1923 and 1932 showed practical blindness in the left eye both times and as good, if not better, vision in the right eye in 1932 than in 1923. From this basis Dr. Wails held that claimant had suffered no loss of vision as a result of the injury received in 1928. Dr. J. W. Shelton and Dr. L. M. Westfall, for petitioners, corroborated Dr. Wails’ view of the present physical condition of claimant’s eyes. They agreed that the eyes had been operated upon to remove cataracts at some distant date, that the lens in each eye are absent, having been absorbed following a needling operation, and that the present deficient vision is due to opacity of the capsules long existent. All three of these doctors were of the opinion that the claimant’s condition would not result from the accidental injury described. They stated that a blow which did not strike the eyeball would not cause a cataract. Dr. Shelton testified that such result could be obtained from an extrinsic blow only through concussion which would destroy the “whole lens.” He further said that he had never read of such 'a blow causing a rent In a capsule. Dr. Wails stated the sarnie opinion with respect to a rent.

Claimant testified in his own behalf that prior to the accidental injury he had never had any trouble with his eyes, that his left eye had been crossed since birth, that upon closing one he could see as well with one as with the other, and that he had never worn glasses except upon one occasion in 1923 when he had drawn some plans at night for a chicken brooder after which he had disposed of them. He admitted this last only after Dr. Wails had brought the fact to light. J. W. Clemmons, a fellow worker at odd times since 1922 and the man on the first scaffold platform at the time of the injury, said that he had never seen claimant wear glasses at work prior to the accident. Claimant said that his present condition has gradually come upon him since the Injury in 1928. He has worn glasses since 19201 He stated unequivocally a number of times that his eyes have never been operated upon. Dr. J. Worth Gray appeared as an expert witness for the claimant. He examined claimant for the first time shortly before the trial. Dr. Gray found a condition somewhat different from that shown by petitioners’ witnesses. He testified that the capsules in both eyes are broken, that the lens in each are absorbed, *231 but that more of the lens is absorbed in the right eye than in the left, that the part of the lens remaining In each eye is opaque, and that the portion of the lens still in the left eye is dislocated. He attributes the loss of vision, to opacity of the remaining lens and to the fact that the dislocated opaque lens in the left- eye obstructs vision. He says that a blow is the only thing that would cause dislocation of the lens, and that a blow may cause a rent in a capsule. Basing his holding upon tlhe undisputed nature of the blow and upon his findings of the condition of claimant’s eyes, Dr. Gray expressed a positive opinion that the condition and therefore the present lack of vision resulted directly from the injury received.

Under the law as announced by numerous decisions of this court, in so far as the findings of fact and award of the Commission are supported by some competent evidence they must be sustained and in so far as they are not supported by some competent evidence they must be disapproved. See Oklahoma Civil Digest, vol. 4, Master & Servant, sections 98 and 99, its supple^ ments, and the cases cited.

Petitioners’ contend in their brief that Dr. Gray was not cognizant of the fact that the lens of claimant’s eyes were absent in 1923, that he had cataracts at that time and also had them w'ithin a few hours after the injury; that he admitted upon cross-examination if claimant’s eyes were cataraetous within a few hours after the injury, It would not be due to the injury; and that, therefore, his opinion was not based upon a true history and was admittedly valueless in the light of these facts.

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Bluebook (online)
1932 OK 804, 16 P.2d 867, 160 Okla. 229, 1932 Okla. LEXIS 751, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kenyon-v-cunningham-okla-1932.