Kraisinger v. C. O. Mammel Food Stores

457 P.2d 678, 203 Kan. 976, 1969 Kan. LEXIS 491
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedAugust 4, 1969
Docket45,672
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 457 P.2d 678 (Kraisinger v. C. O. Mammel Food Stores) 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
Kraisinger v. C. O. Mammel Food Stores, 457 P.2d 678, 203 Kan. 976, 1969 Kan. LEXIS 491 (kan 1969).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Schroeder, J.:

This is an appeal by the respondent and its insurance carrier from a judgment entered by the district court of Barton County, Kansas, for a lump sum award pursuant to K. S. A. 44-512a.

The only question is whether the respondent and its insurance carrier (defendants-appellants) failed to make full payment of compensation due after written demand was served pursuant to 44-512a, supra.

The matter was determined in the trial court on a motion for summary judgment (K. S. A. 60-256) filed on the ground that the pleadings and admissions on file disclosed there was no genuine issue as to any material fact. The claimant’s motion recites that the admissions made by the respondent and insurance carrier establish negligence on the part of the respondent and its insurance carrier as a matter of law.

Where a matter is determined on a motion for summary judgment, if the pleadings, depositions, answers to interrogatories and admissions on file, together with the affidavits, if any, show that there is no genuine issue as to any material fact and that the moving party is entitled to judgment as a matter of law, the judgment shall be rendered forthwith. (West v. Prairie State Bank, 200 Kan. 263, 436 P. 2d 402.) Furthermore, a pleading is to be liberally construed in favor of the party against whom the motion for summary judgment is directed. (Price, Administrator v. Holmes, 198 Kan. 100, 422 P. 2d 976.)

For purposes of the motion in this case the answer of the appellants and the exhibits attached thereto are admitted by the appellee as true. The pleadings on file, and the admissions of the claimant and of the respondent and its insurance carrier establish the following facts:

On the 7th day of March, 1968, an examiner’s award of compensation was affirmed by the workmen’s compensation director awarding the claimant, James J. Kraisinger (plaintiff-appellee) 35 weeks of temporary total disability at the rate of $42 per week, and 366 weeks of permanent partial disability at the rate of $40.99 for a total of $15,037.59, of which amount as of January 1, 1968, there was due [978]*978and owing $1,589.61. The remaining sum of $13,438.98 was ordered paid at the rate of $40.99 per week. The award further allowed medical, hospital, travel and per diem. Among these items was an entry:

“Central Kansas Medical Center........ $75.00”

The respondent was also ordered to furnish “future medical expense not to exceed the sum of $6,000.00 less medical heretofore paid or ordered paid under the terms of” the award.

The Central Kansas Medical Center had rendered treatment to the claimant on two separate occasions. When claimant was hospitalized for treatment by Dr. C. R. Brown on December 5, 1966, and dismissed on December 17, 1966, the patient’s file was marked “Compensation,” and the billing of $356.50 was voluntarily paid by the insurance carrier, Alliance Mutual Casualty Company. The hearing on the claim for compensation filed with the Kansas workmen’s compensation commission by the claimant was concluded by the examiner on the 20th day of July, 1967. The period of time the matter was before the examiner included the above noted hospitalization at the Central Kansas Medical Center. Subsequently, from August 31, 1967, through October 3, 1967, the claimant was treated as an outpatient at the Central Kansas Medical Center at the request of Dr. C. R. Brown for additional treatment. This billing of the medical center in the amount of $75 was sent directly to the claimant, and since the evidence in the compensation case had been completed and the case had been submitted to the examiner for decision on August 15, 1967, the attorneys of record for the claimant under date of September 30, 1967, sent the billing charge for $75 to the examiner for inclusion in the award. A copy of this correspondence was forwarded directly to the attorney of record for the respondent and its insurance carrier, Thomas C. Boone, Hays, Kansas. This letter dated September 30, 1967, addressed to the examiner, stated in part:

“There is also an unpaid balance at the Central Kansas Medical Center for physical therapy treatments over the past several months, and we request that this medical bill be ordered paid as a part of the award in this case.”

Thomas C. Boone acknowledged receipt of a copy of this letter in an answer to request for admissions.

A second bill was received by the claimant for the same $75 charge of the Central Kansas Medical Center in November, 1967, since it remained unpaid. Thereupon claimant’s attorney under date [979]*979of November 10, 1967, addressed additional correspondence to the examiner which read in part:

“As you know, this case was submitted to decision on August 14. Since that time, the claimant has received an additional bill from the Central Kansas Medical Center in the amount of $75.00 for physical therapy treatments.
“We are enclosing a copy of this statement, and request that payment of this statement be allowed as part of the award in this case.”

A copy of this correspondence was also forwarded to the attorney of record for the respondent and its insurance carrier, Thomas C. Boone, and he admitted receiving the copy.

It is to be noted the $75 charge at the Central Kansas Medical Center was specifically itemized in the award of compensation.

After the award of compensation was affirmed by the director on the 7th day of March, 1968, Phyllis S. Linaweaver, an employee of the insurance carrier, Alliance Mutual Casualty Company, was directed by her superior, the service office manager, to make sure that all bills allowed in the award were paid. Phyllis S. Linaweaver in an affidavit filed with the answer stated:

“. . . One of such bills was that of Central Kansas Medical Center, and the award was in the amount of $75.00. My records showed that the Alliance Mutual Casualty Co. had already paid the amount of $356.50 to the Central Kansas Medical Center, which was more than the award. To check on the amount and to find out if there was any outstanding balance with the medical center I did on March 13, 1968, telephone the Central Kansas Medical Center in Great Bend, Kansas, and spoke with the girl in the accounting or bookkeeping department.
“I do not know her name, but I was advised that there was no outstanding bill against James J. Kraisinger under the workmens compensation claim at that time; she acknowledged the payment of the $356.50 previously paid to the Center.
“No bill has ever been sent to the Alliance Mutual Casualty Company by the Central Kansas Medical Center, or on their behalf, for $75.00 or any amount other than what was previously paid as stated above. I would have known of any such bill had it been sent. I assumed that since the $75 was not outstanding in the medical center bill, it was included in the amount we had paid.” (Emphasis added.)

On the basis of such information the Alliance Mutual Casualty Company refrained from paying the $75 item.

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Kraisinger v. C. O. Mammel Food Stores
457 P.2d 678 (Supreme Court of Kansas, 1969)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
457 P.2d 678, 203 Kan. 976, 1969 Kan. LEXIS 491, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kraisinger-v-c-o-mammel-food-stores-kan-1969.