King v. Celebrezze

223 F. Supp. 457, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7028
CourtDistrict Court, W.D. Arkansas
DecidedNovember 21, 1963
DocketCiv. A. No. 464
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 223 F. Supp. 457 (King v. Celebrezze) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, W.D. Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
King v. Celebrezze, 223 F. Supp. 457, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7028 (W.D. Ark. 1963).

Opinion

JOHN E. MILLER, Chief Judge.

Plaintiff seeks review of a final decision of the defendant Secretary denying disability benefits under the Social Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 401 et seq. This court has jurisdiction of the action pursuant to Sec. 205(g) of the Soeial Security Act, 42 U.S.C. § 405(g).

Plaintiff first made application for disability benefits August 15, 1957. That application was denied and he did not appeal.

Plaintiff filed the present application for disability benefits and to establish a period of disability on November 22, 1960. This application was disallowed on March 17, 1961; a hearing on his application was held August 24, 1961, by Hearing Examiner Bayard Taylor; the [459]*459hearing examiner denied the application December 15, 1961; and his request for review was denied by the Appeals Council on February 21, 1962, thus making the hearing examiner’s decision the final decision of the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare.

This action was filed by the plaintiff on April 18, 1962, and the defendant Secretary filed a motion to remand on June 4, 1962. The plaintiff filed a response resisting the motion to remand on June 13, 1962. However, plaintiff by letter of June 19, 1962, withdrew objection to the motion, and an order was entered with plaintiff’s consent on June 19, 1962, remanding the case to the Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare for further administrative action.

An additional hearing was held on March 27, 1963, by Hearing Examiner Gary Karp; the application was again denied on April 3, 1963; the Appeals Council modified and affirmed the hearing examiner’s report on May 24, 1963, denying disability benefits. On August 22,1963, the defendant Secretary filed an answer praying dismissal of the complaint. The case is now before the court on plaintiff’s motion for summary judgment.

The pertinent facts of the plaintiff’s non-medical history are not in dispute. Plaintiff was born at Braden, Oklahoma, May 27, 1915. He had a tenth-grade education and quit school at age sixteen. He was first employed as a messenger for Western Union for fifteen months. His next employment was in a filling station and garage where he began to learn the automobile mechanics trade. A year later he was employed as a mechanic at the Motor Inn Garage in Fayetteville, Arkansas. His next employment was with Lake’s Chevrolet in Springdale, Arkansas. He then went to the West Coast and was employed by Consolidated Aircraft Company as a truck driver and oiler. He was next employed by Washington County, Arkansas. He worked as a mechanic on the county road machinery for about five years, at which time he was drafted into the Army. He entered the Army in 1944 and served two years.

When he was discharged from the Army he returned to his job with the county. He next operated a Cities Service Station and did mechanic work. Six or seven months later he went to work at the local DeSoto and Plymouth Agency and Garage. He was then offered a job with an asphalt mining company in Uvalde, Texas. For the next three years he was employed as a working foreman and mechanic for White’s Uvalde Mines at Uvalde, Texas. In April 1956, while working at White’s on a catwalk approximately 35 feet above the ground, plaintiff fell and was seriously injured. At the time of his fall he was hospitalized at Memorial Hospital in Uvalde, Texas. He returned to White’s after about three months and was employed in light work, checking and issuing oil barrels, but was injured again when his clothes caught fire. After his second injury the mining company would not employ him because of his physical condition, and he then returned to Fayetteville, Arkansas, where he was employed for a short time as a mechanic. He presently lives in Fayetteville, Arkansas, with his wife and daughter and has not been regularly employed since 1956. However, there is no question that the palintiff meets the special earnings requirement. The hearing examiner’s report of April 3, 1963, states that the plaintiff met the special earnings requirement on November 22, 1960, or within three months thereafter.

Plaintiff’s medical history is the important consideration in this action. When he fell from the catwalk in 1956, he was examined by Dr. Woods R. Howard of Uvalde, Texas. Dr. Howard found multiple musclo-skeletal injuries to the plaintiff, who had entered the hospital in a state of shock. In a letter dated June 26, 1956, to the insurance carrier of plaintiff’s employer, Dr. Howard stated that upon his examination of April 1, 1956, he found the following injuries:

“(1) Severe comminuted fracture of the intertrochanteric and subtrochanteries regions of the left femur,
[460]*460“(2) Comminuted, impacted fracture left os calcis with dislocation of the subastragalar joint,
“(3) Fractures of the pelvis (Rami and body right pubic bone),
“(4) Fractures of the left transverse process 5th lumbar vertebra,
“(5) Complete dislocation and comminuted impacted fractures of the left radial head and coronoid process ■ ulna and trochlea of the humerus.”

Plaintiff was in Dr. Howard’s care from April 1956 until July 1, 1956, and was hospitalized April through June 7, 1956. In a letter to the Industrial Accident Board of the State of Texas, dated January 15, 1957, he stated that treatment of plaintiff was as follows:

“Under general (pentothal) anesthesia, the fracture dislocation of the left elbow was reduced and immobilized, the left leg was put in Buck’s traction and general measures instituted for treatment of shock. The following- day, Dr. John J. Hinchey from San Antonio, Texas (orthopedic surgeon) came to Uvalde, and under spinal anesthesia, reduced and immobilized the fracture dislocation of the left calcaneous and reduced and pinned the left hip and femur. Approximately one week later, he returned and removed the heads of the left ulna and radius under general anesthesia. Mr. King remained in the Memorial Hospital, Uvalde, Texas, until the middle of June when he was permitted to return home for further convalescence where I followed him until July 1, 1956.”

Upon his return to Fayetteville, Arkansas, plaintiff was treated several times at the Veterans Hospital. The rating sheets of the VA Hospital found in the transcript at page 490 substantiate the examination and treatment described by Dr. Howard in his January 15, 1957, letter, although the VA denied plaintiff a pension in their letter of December 5, 1957, at page 488 of the transcript.

The VA Hospital treated plaintiff in May and December 1958 for severe pain in the left ankle and leg, but the Board of Appeals of the Veterans Administration, in their report on page 483 of the transcript, denied non-service connected disability pension because he was in their opinion, only 50 percent disabled, and the VA required a 60 percent disability. On July 31,1961, the plaintiff was awarded a monthly non-service connected disability pension based on his physical impairments.

In February 1961 plaintiff was given an extensive examination by Dr. Coy C. Kaylor. Dr. Kaylor, an eminent orthopedist, in his letter to the Arkansas Rehabilitation Service, dated February 16, 1961, stated:

“Physical Examination:

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Related

Robles v. Gardner
259 F. Supp. 78 (D. Puerto Rico, 1966)
De Gracia v. Secretary of Health, Education and Welfare
248 F. Supp. 522 (D. Puerto Rico, 1966)
Christie v. Celebrezze
243 F. Supp. 156 (W.D. Michigan, 1965)
Dixon v. Celebrezze
236 F. Supp. 328 (W.D. Arkansas, 1964)
Hanna v. Celebrezze
233 F. Supp. 239 (W.D. Arkansas, 1964)
Powell v. Celebrezze
230 F. Supp. 142 (W.D. Arkansas, 1964)

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Bluebook (online)
223 F. Supp. 457, 1963 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 7028, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/king-v-celebrezze-arwd-1963.