Lowder v. Standard Auto Parts Co.

287 N.W. 211, 136 Neb. 747, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 154
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 21, 1939
DocketNo. 30586
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 287 N.W. 211 (Lowder v. Standard Auto Parts Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lowder v. Standard Auto Parts Co., 287 N.W. 211, 136 Neb. 747, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 154 (Neb. 1939).

Opinions

Messmore, J.

The plaintiff was granted an award by the compensation court in the original hearing, and on rehearing the court, sitting en banc, granted him an award for temporary disability, medical and hospital fees. The defendant appealed to the district court for Lancaster county, where its appeal was dismissed, the court finding from the record competent evidence to support the award, and from such order of dismissal defendant appeals to this court, where the case is tried de novo.

The principal errors relied upon for reversal are: (1) That the award of the compensation court is based upon speculation and conjecture and not sustained by any evidence with reasonable certainty; (2) that the evidence clearly preponderates against the claim of the plaintiff.

The plaintiff, 46 years of age, a metal cleaner employed by defendant, on the evening of July 30, 1937, between 5 and 6 o’clock, pursuant to an order given by defendant’s agents, started to replace a spring in a Model “A” Ford automobile. The car was jacked up, with the front wheels sitting upon two crank case pans. The motor was loose from the frame of the front end of the car. The tires were resting upon two oil cans. The plaintiff had to raise the front of the motor in order to get the front spring out, took hold of the jack and started to raise the front end a little higher; the car slipped off the pans and off the jack and struck the plaintiff on the right shoulder, bending him over to the left on the cement floor. At the time, he was in front of the radiator, his head being between the radiator and the bumper, with his left leg under him and his right leg straight out. After the accident the plaintiff was unable to tell his exact position. He stated that he got out from under the [749]*749car, but could not straighten up; that it was hard for him to get his breath; that he had shooting pains in his chest and in the upper and lower part of his left side; that he went to the office and related to his employer what had occurred and was immediately sent to the office of Doctor Hilton, who taped his lower left side and across his chest, gave him some medicine and some liniment to be applied, told him to go home and rest, and treatments were continued by application of heat from electric rays. On September 26, 1937, Doctor Hilton told plaintiff that he had done all he could for him and advised him to go to a hospital, presumably on account of tuberculosis. However, there is no testimony of Doctor Hilton in regard to any such statement. Plaintiff next consulted Dr. Czar Johnson, who immediately referred him to Dr. Arthur L. Smith, who has since treated him continuously.

The disability complained of, as reflected by plaintiff’s petition in the compensation court, follows: After describ-ing the nature of the accident, the petition alleges that the accident caused a severe contusion of plaintiff’s left shoulder and left chest wall; fractured his left fifth rib, separated his right and left second rib from the sternum, producing a severe strain of the back, aggravating a pneumonitis, producing an active tuberculosis of the lungs, and aggravating a latent arthritis of the vertebrae. Defendant’s answer is that the plaintiff’s present disability was in no way caused by injuries sustained by the accident occurring July 30, 1937, but charges that his condition was caused by disabilities existing long prior thereto.

The record discloses that the plaintiff had claimed service-connected disability by virtue of his service in the World War, and had, since 1918, been confined in different hos-r pitáis from a period of a few days to five months at a time; and, on occasions, was placed under observation, to determine whether or not he had pulmonary tuberculosis, for which compensation might be awarded by the federal government, but on each occasion the conclusion was contrary to his claim that he had tuberculosis. His condition, as far [750]*750as the government is concerned in awarding him compensation based upon a 45 per centum disability, has been diagnosed as moderate chronic bronchitis and neurasthenia. The plaintiff on various occasions had exhibited the symptoms of pulmonary tuberculosis.

The plaintiff claimed to be in good health two years prior •to the accident; that he was off work from his present occupation a part of a day on account of illness. This claim is disputed by the testimony of his employer, who stated, in substance, that plaintiff had told him he was not physically able to do the kind of work that he was then doing; he coughed a great deal, and for convenience a place was fixed for him to work, to enable him to be out of doors a portion of the time. He had stopped work on numerous occasions, on account of illness, at various times of the day and had gone home. Previous to the employment with defendant, plaintiff had worked at intervals at different places, as shown by the record, but had not done much work, due, perhaps, to his physical condition and hospitalization. Plaintiff claimed that he carried a basket of metal to weigh in just prior to the accident. His employer stated that after the accident plaintiff carried the basket of metal, weighing 90 pounds, 90 feet, to be weighed in.

. A summary of the medical testimony received in plaintiff's behalf follows: Dr. Arthur L. Smith, the attending physician, testified that he had made 17 physical examinations of the plaintiff, had taken 13 X-ray pictures, had made 114 hospital calls, had attended the plaintiff for a period of five months and had taken tuberculin and sputum tests. His history of the case showed a bubo opened in 1909, tonsillotomy, appendectomy, and herniotomy in 1924, and right thumb removed in 1930. The tuberculin test resulted in a positive tubercular reaction upon a concentrated dilution of tuberculin, .005 milligrams; the reaction to the ordinary test, .002 milligrams, was negative.

At this point it is proper to state that, as a general rule, an arrested tuberculosis will show a positive tuberculin test in the ordinary-dilution, for the reason that generally [751]*751there is a slight sensitivity to it, and therefore a concentrated dose of tuberculin is not ordinarily required, under such circumstances, to bring a positive reaction.

Doctor Smith found fractures of three ribs, which, however, were not discovered by him until after the first hearing in the compensation court. This fact is significant, considering the physical examinations and calls made by the doctor, and, further, that Doctor Hilton treated plaintiff from July 30, 1937, to September 26, 1937, and the evidence contains no statement by him of fractured ribs. Doctor Smith also found evidence of tubercular trouble, such as old hardened lesions, manifested by deposits of calcium in various parts of the lungs, and concluded that plaintiff had a fracture of three ribs on the right side, an aggravation of arthritis in the fifth dorsal vertebra, a separation of the second left and right costo-cartilages from the sternum margin, and an activation of an old tubercular condition, all of such conditions the result of the trauma suffered in the accident of July 30, 1937.

There also appears in the evidence a signed statement by Dr. Roscoe L. Smith, dated April 29, 1929, that the plaintiff had a chronic fibroid tuberculosis, as well as a signed statement of Dr. Miles J.

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Bluebook (online)
287 N.W. 211, 136 Neb. 747, 1939 Neb. LEXIS 154, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lowder-v-standard-auto-parts-co-neb-1939.