Lee v. Oliger

21 N.E.2d 65, 107 Ind. App. 90, 1939 Ind. App. LEXIS 20
CourtIndiana Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 23, 1939
DocketNo. 16,366.
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 21 N.E.2d 65 (Lee v. Oliger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lee v. Oliger, 21 N.E.2d 65, 107 Ind. App. 90, 1939 Ind. App. LEXIS 20 (Ind. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

Dudine, J.

This is an appeal from an award of the Industrial Board which denied appellant compensation.

The full.Industrial Board found “that on Decern-. her 29, 1936, while in the employ of . . . (appellee) at an average weekly wage of $21.60 . . . (appellant) suffered an injury as the result of an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment. . . . That on December 20, 1937, . . . (appellant’s left eye was enucleated. . . . And the Full Industrial Board, by a majority of its members . . . (found) . . . that the enucleation of . . . (appellant’s) left eye was not directly or indirectly the result of the accidental injury sustained by . . . (appellant) ... on December 29, 1936.”

Appellant has assigned as error on appeal that the award is contrary to law. Appellant contends that the evidence does not sustain the finding and that the evidence conclusively shows facts under which he was entitled to an award of compensation.

It was stipulated by the parties that “on the 29th day of December, 1936, . . . (appellant) was in the employ of . . . (appellee) at an average weekly wage of $21.60 and on said date . . . (appellant) met with an accident arising out of and in the course of his said employment . . . .”

The evidence shows the “accident” was a “speck” of some foreign substance falling in appellant’s left eye while he was painting a “sand finish” ceiling in a school room. This occurred on December 29, 1936. The foreign substance was removed by a doctor on December 31, 1936, two days after the accident. Another doctor examined the eye on September 6, 1937, *92 more than eight months after the accident, and observed that an ulcer had developed. The ulcer at that time was “very large”; it covered the central portion of the cornea; the 'eye was blind then and beyond chance of improvement, but the ulcer was still active. A third doctor examined the eye December 9, 1937, about eleven months after the accident, and found that the ulcer had become inactive and the eye was in such condition that he advised its enucleation as a protection to the right eye. The enucleation was performed December 20, 1937.

The doctor who examined the eye in September, 1937, after the ulcer had developed testified that the ulcer was due to an injury. Upon cross-examination he gave as a basis for that opinion the fact that “ulcers are due as a rule to injury and infection following. ’ ’

The doctor who saw the eye in December, 1937, after the ulcer became inactive, testified that “it (the eye) had the appearance of an eye that had received an injury (from the outside).”

Both of said doctors testified in effect that said ulcer and enucleation of the eye could have been caused by a'foreign substance falling in appellant’s eye on December 29,1936. Their opinion was based upon the supposition that the surface of the eye was broken by the foreign body, leaving defective tissue, and infection set in. They testified that the nature of an ulcer “is the breaking down of tissue assisted with infection of the tissue;” that the period of “incubation” of an ulcer is from thirty-six to seventy-two hours but “the duration of the process” resulting in an ulcer could be “two or three years.”

Appellant testified that the eye pained him continually from the time of the accident on December 29, 1936, until the eye was removed on December 20,1937; *93 that the eye did not give him “any bother” before the accident and that he did not receive any injury of any kind to the eye after the accident. Said testimony was corroborated by other witnesses, and was not disputed by any evidence.

Appellant contends that the medical evidence conclusively shows that the ulcer was caused by an injury, that said evidence when considered with the evidence of continual pain from the date of the accident to the date of removal of the eye, and with the evidence that there was no other injury to the eye after said accident, all of which evidence is undisputed, established a claim for compensation.

In determining the sufficiency of the evidence to sustain the finding of the Industrial Board we must bear in mind the fact that appellant had the burden of proving every ultimate fact which was necessary to establish a claim for compensation. In order to justify a reversal of the award in the instant case on the ground of insufficiency of the evidence to sustain the finding the evidence must so conclusively prove each of such ultimate facts that it can not be reasonably construed to give rise to inferences favorable to appellee as to any of such ultimate facts.

If appellee failed to prove any one of such ultimate facts, he failed to establish a claim for compensation and the award of the Industrial Board that he recover nothing by his application is not contrary to law.

One of the ultimate facts necessary to establish appellant’s claim for compensation was the fact that the loss of the left eye was the result of said accident. The Industrial Board expressly found “that the enucleation of . . . (appellant’s) left eye was not directly or indirectly the result of the *94 accidental injury sustained . . . December 29, 1936.” We shall proceed to determine whether the evidence as to such ultimate fact was so conclusive in favor of appellant that it could not be reasonably construed to give rise to inferences which were fhvorable to appellee and favorable to the finding of the Industrial Board as to such ultimate fact.

The doctor who removed the foreign body from appellant ’s eye two days after the accident testified that the foreign body was very small; that it had not penetrated the eye but was “rather superficial;” that he removed the foreign body and gave appellant some eye drops to use at home; that he examined the eye on January 2,1937, five days after the accident, when appellant complained of irritation and “simply gave him something to relieve that irritation;” that he saw appellant’s eye on January 4, 1937, and January. 13, 1937, on each of which occasions appellant complained of irritation and the doctor treated it for the irritation. The doctor noticed calcerous deposits in the lid of the eye-upon those occasions, but there was no ulcerous condition in the eye. On April 28, 1937, about four months after the accident, the doctor removed some of the calcerous deposits “that seemed to irritate” appellant. On May 5,1937, the doctor removed a chalazion, a tumor like growth on the eye lid, which had no connection with the accident. At that date there were still some calcerous deposits on the lid but there was no evidence of ulceration in the eye. That doctor did not see appellant’s eye after May 5, 1937. He testified further that two or three days after he removed the foreign body there was no “evidence of any foreign body having been there .... At any subsequent time I didn’t see any evidence of the foreign body having been there. . . , The eye was healed up. There was nothing there.”

*95 That doctor’s qualifications were proven and were not challenged.

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Bluebook (online)
21 N.E.2d 65, 107 Ind. App. 90, 1939 Ind. App. LEXIS 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lee-v-oliger-indctapp-1939.