Kestenman Bros. Mfg. Co. v. Greene

102 A.2d 452, 81 R.I. 291, 1954 R.I. LEXIS 80
CourtSupreme Court of Rhode Island
DecidedFebruary 5, 1954
StatusPublished

This text of 102 A.2d 452 (Kestenman Bros. Mfg. Co. v. Greene) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Rhode Island primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kestenman Bros. Mfg. Co. v. Greene, 102 A.2d 452, 81 R.I. 291, 1954 R.I. LEXIS 80 (R.I. 1954).

Opinion

Condon, J.

This is an employer’s petition to review a preliminary agreement for workmen’s compensation for total incapacity on the ground that such incapacity has ended or diminished. From a decree finding the respondent employee no longer incapacitated by the injury described in the agreement and ordering compensation suspended, respondent has appealed to this court.

In support of her appeal she has set out six reasons, but in reality they amount only to the contentions that there is no legal evidence to support the finding in the decree and that the decree is otherwise contrary to law. She has also argued, in effect, that the decree is not supported by the weight of the evidence. That argument will not be treated here since it is well established that in a workmen’s compen[293]*293sation case this court does not weigh the evidence. The basic question raised by her appeal is whether the evidence shows that she is no longer incapacitated by the specific injury described in the agreement.

According to the agreement, the nature and location of her injury is described as “Ganglion right wrist” and it is further stated therein that it was caused while respondent was “Twisting bracelet parts” in the course of her employment in petitioner’s jewelry shop on September 13, 1950. She continued working until September 22, 1950 when the plant physician Dr. I. Kapnick sent her to the Miriam Hospital in Providence where he operated on her wrist and removed the ganglion. On the instructions of Dr. Kapnick she returned to work on Monday, September 25, 1950, but her hand was swollen, bandaged and in a sling. The employer found that she could not do her regular work in that condition and since there was no light work in the shop that she could do, it was agreed that she was totally incapacitated as of that date. She remained out of work until January 8, 1951, drawing total compensation in accordance with the preliminary agreement dated October 4, 1950 and approved November 6, 1950.

On January 18, 1951 she signed a settlement receipt acknowledging that petitioner had paid her compensation in full to January 5, 1951 and that she was able to return to work. However, she did not return to her employment at petitioner’s shop as there was no work she could do there at that time. Instead she got a job for two weeks at the Bulova Watch Company and for the next two weeks at the Brier Manufacturing Company. In neither place was she able to do the work assigned to her on account of the painful condition of her right hand. Accordingly on February 15, 1951 petitioner entered into another agreement, identical in terms with the original agreement, to pay her compensation for total incapacity.

It is this second agreement which the petitioner seeks to [294]*294have reviewed. In its petition it has alleged that the agreement was approved March 12, 1951, and this allegation is followed by the usual allegations that employee’s incapacity thereunder has ended or diminished and that, although able to do so, she has not returned to work. The respondent contends that such petition was clearly insufficient because it did not allege with more particularity the grounds upon which the claim that her incapacity had ended or diminished was based. She claims that since the petition lacked such allegation it did not afford her adequate and proper notice of the case she had to defend. In connection with such claim she also contends that the preliminary agreement of March 12, 1951 did not properly describe the injury which was then incapacitating her, because the description therein was “Ganglion right wrist” notwithstanding the fact that the ganglion had been excised by Dr. Kapnick on September 22, 1950.

These two contentions are without merit. In our opinion the petition is sufficient to afford respondent ample notice of the claim she had to defend. Moreover it is the usual form of petition which, as far as we are aware, has never before been questioned as lacking in sufficient averments. In keeping with the expressed policy of the workmen’s compensation act, general laws 1938, chapter 300, article III, §14, which favors informality in the pleading and procedure thereunder, this court is disposed to look with reasonable liberality upon the sufficiency of a pleading when questions pertaining to it are raised here. Jules Desurmont Worsted Co. v. Julian, 56 R. I. 97. In any event it is too late to raise such a question in this court for the first time.

The other contention of respondent appears to be rather strained. We construe the second agreement of March 12, 1951 to be no more than a formal reinstatement of the original agreement of October 4, 1950. Consequently her injury was quite properly described therein precisely as it was described in the original agreement. The second agree[295]*295ment was in effect merely a restoration of respondent’s right to compensation for total incapacity under the original agreement after she had tried to work and found that she was unable to do so. Therefore the second agreement was in no sense an independent agreement based on a different injury from that described in the original agreement.

With these preliminary questions of procedure out of the way there remains only one question to be decided. Is respondent still incapacitated in whole or in part by the injury described in the agreement, namely, “Ganglion right wrist”? At the hearing before the trial justice originally on May 26, 1952 there was a substantial conflict in the medical evidence as to whether respondent was presently incapacitated by the aftereffects of the removal of the ganglion or from some other independent cause. She had been-treated or examined by several doctors after Dr. Kapnick had operated on her wrist and excised the ganglion. None of those doctors testified, but their reports of either treatment or examination were offered in evidence, some of them by petitioner and others by respondent.

Apparently at the conclusion of the hearing and before he had an opportunity to read the reports, the trial justice was concerned about respondent’s welfare and suggested that she be examined by Dr. Wilfred Pickles, a neurologist, since at least one of the doctors who had examined her had recommended that she be examined by such a specialist. There being no objection to this suggestion, the trial justice appointed Dr. Pickles as an impartial examiner and continued the hearing until such an examination was completed and a report thereof received. Upon receipt of such report the hearing was reopened on December 10, 1952, and at that time counsel for respondent moved that Dr. Pickles be summoned so that he might examine the doctor on the contents of his report. The hearing was again continued until December 18, 1952 at which time Dr. Pickles appeared and was examined at length by counsel for respondent.

[296]*296Doctor Pickles and respondent were the only witnesses at the hearing. The reports of the other doctors who examined or treated her are in evidence as exhibits. Apparently the trial justice rejected the opinions of the other doctors as to the nature of respondent’s incapacitating condition. He relied entirely upon Dr. Pickles who in the report of his examination of respondent stated: “In my judgment this patient is suffering from a radio-humeral bursitis on the right side.

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Bluebook (online)
102 A.2d 452, 81 R.I. 291, 1954 R.I. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kestenman-bros-mfg-co-v-greene-ri-1954.