Martin v. Great American Indemnity Co.

75 So. 2d 415, 1954 La. App. LEXIS 554
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 6, 1954
DocketNo. 3865
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 75 So. 2d 415 (Martin v. Great American Indemnity Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Martin v. Great American Indemnity Co., 75 So. 2d 415, 1954 La. App. LEXIS 554 (La. Ct. App. 1954).

Opinion

CAVANAUGH, Judge.

Plaintiff sues the defendants, R. L. Car-mino and Hazel M. Toups, d/b/a Carmino Contracting Company, individually and as a partnership, and their insurer, Great American Indemnity Company of New York, for compensation at the rate of $30 per week for a period of 400 weeks, subject to a payment of compensation in the amount of $431.10, together with legal interest on past due installments and medical, hospital, drug and incidental expenses in the amount of $500, together with the 12% statutory penalty provided for under LSA-R.S. 22:658 and attorney’s fees of $1500.00.

Plaintiff alleges that he was employed by the defendant, Carmino Contracting Company, and on February 1, 1952, while performing services arising out of,- incidental to and during the course, business and trade of the defendant and while he was riding in an open truck owned by the defendant and in which he was being transported with fellow workers from Slidell to Franklinton, Louisiana, to pick up a load of telephone poles, the driver of the truck lost control of the truck, causing it to run off the highway and capsize. He alleges that he was thrown to the ground with a great force', knocked unconscious, severely injured, and was immediately carried to a hospital in Franklinton, Louisiana. Plaintiff further alleges that he suffered a ruptured inter-vertebral disc in the low lumbar area on the [416]*416left in the lumbosacral interspace with compression of the first sacral nerve root on the left. His rate of pay at the time of the alleged accident and injury was alleged to have been $1,075 per hour of 8 hours per day, 5 days per-week, with time and one-half for all hours worked over 40 in any one work week, and that his average weekly wage was $49.49, with overtime, and that his compensation should he the maximum rate of $30.00 per week.

The plaintiff further alleges that the defendant ceased to pay compensation on June 4, 1952, and that the installments previously paid were not for the amount due and that the defendant has, without reasonable cause, arbitrarily and capriciously neglected and refused to pay him the compensation due him after the expiration of more than sixty days after due notice and demand; that he engaged an attorney to prosecute his claim and suit and had agreed to pay him 20% and that the defendant insurance company, Great American Indemnity Company of New York, is indebted unto him in the additional sum of 12% of the total amount awarded as a penalty, plus a reasonable attorney’s fees of $1,500.

The defendants admit that plaintiff suffered an accident and an injury, but not to the extent alleged, and the payment of compensation for a- period of 18 weeks at the rate of $23.95 per week, or a total of $431.10 by the Great American Indemnity Company. They further allege that the Great American Indemnity Company paid plaintiff’s medical expenses in the amount of $237.60. Defendants pray that the plaintiff’s-demands be rej'ectéd at his costs.

After trial in the district court, judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendants individually and in solido in the sum of $30.00 per week commencing February 1, 1952, and extending for a period not to exceed 400 weeks, with legal interest on past due. weekly compensation, subject to a credit of weekly payments of $23.95 each made from the date of the injury, February 1, 1952, until June 4, 1952. A further judgment was rendered in favor of plaintiff and against the defendants for $43.30 for medical expenses, together with legal interest from date of judicial demand, and recognizing the contract between plaintiff and his attorney for attorney’s fees, and the judgment fixed the fees of the expert witnesses, Dr. Dwain Foreman and Dr. Willard Dowell, at $50.00 each and taxed same as costs.

The claim of plaintiff for penalties and attorney’s fees was rejected.

Defendants suspensively appealed from the judgment, and the plaintiff has answered the appeal, asking that the judgment be amended by granting and decreeing him entitled to the penalty of 12%, plus the attorney’s fees of $1,500 as to the Great American Indemnity Company.

The evidence in this case shows that the plaintiff suffered what was thought at the time not to be a serious injury. This is evidence by the examination and report of Dr. McGehee of Franklinton and Dr. Mayer of Baton Rouge. He was X-rayed at Franklinton, Louisiana, immediately following the accident and injury and was then sent to Gonzales, Louisiana, where he was placed under the treatment of Dr. Epstein. He was examined by Dr. Louis Mayer of Baton Rouge on February 5, 1952, or 4 days after the accident, and according to his report the plaintiff had not suffered a serious injury but only bruises and contusions. Following this examination, plaintiff was under the care and treatment of Dr. Meyer Epstein of Gonzales, Louisiana, until April 11, 1952. He was treated by this physician for a lumbosacral strain with diathermy and other heat treatments, and on March 17, 1952, when plaintiff did not appear to respond to the treatment, he was referred by this physician to Dr. Moss M. Bannerman of Baton Rouge. Dr. Bannerman is an orthopedic specialist. This physician treated the plaintiff until June 4, 1952, when he advised the defendant insurance company that the plaintiff was able to resume his work.

We quote from the written reasons of the Trial Judge, in which the testimony was analyzed and on which he based his judgment for plaintiff:

[417]*417“The plaintiff is a colored male who has been married twenty-two years. He is thirty-nine years old, uneducated, but of fair intelligence. As a witness for himself he testified that from the date of the accident he had trouble in his back which extended down his left leg with pain and numbness practically over all his body. He claims that since the accident he has at all times been unable to do any work. He said that he told all the doctors about his back, leg, arm and shoulder pains. Plaintiff denies that he told Dr. Meyer Epstein in April of 1952 that he felt cured and able to go to work; but he admits that Dr. Bannerman discharged him as able to go back to work on June 4, 1952, and that he never went back to see the doctor.
“Immediately after the accident this plaintiff was taken to the McGehee Clinic in Franklinton, Louisiana, where he remained from about 9:00 in the morning to about 8:00 that night. Dr. McGehee, who examined and' treated him that day, reports that ‘while riding in the back of a truck the truck left the highway and he fell off causing contusion L. sacro-iliac region, left sciatic nerve, left lageral spinous muscles, in lumbar region and left glutial muscles’. Evidently this doctor made X-rays because he reports that the X-ray diagnosis was negative for fracture or dislocation involving lumbar sacral spine, pelvis and hips. This doctor estimated that the plaintiff would be able to resume work in approximately one week. (Plaintiff’s Exhibits Two and Three)
“The plaintiff left the Franklinton hospital that same night and went to Gonzales, Louisiana, where he was referred by his employer to Dr. Myer Epstein, of Gonzales, who does not claim to qualify or testify as a specialized expert, but who explained that he has been engaged in general practice for many years in the vicinity of Gonzales, Louisiana, where he has treated many industrial and oil field workers and where he has by experience learned about and treated many back and nerve injury cases.

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Bluebook (online)
75 So. 2d 415, 1954 La. App. LEXIS 554, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/martin-v-great-american-indemnity-co-lactapp-1954.