Mashburn v. Chevrolet-Kansas City Division, General Motors Corp.

397 S.W.2d 23, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 560
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedOctober 4, 1965
Docket24249
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 397 S.W.2d 23 (Mashburn v. Chevrolet-Kansas City Division, General Motors Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mashburn v. Chevrolet-Kansas City Division, General Motors Corp., 397 S.W.2d 23, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 560 (Mo. Ct. App. 1965).

Opinion

DAVID R CLEVENGER, Special Judge.

This is a Workmen’s Compensation case involving a final award by the Industrial Commission, in favor of Charles L. Mash-burn, Employee, against Chevrolet, Kansas City Division, General Motors Corporation, Employer and self insurer. On review, the Circuit Court of Jackson County affirmed the award of the Commission.

The Employee and the Employer each appealed and this court, upon motion, ordered the appeals consolidated.

The Referee’s finding was that the Employee sustained an accident arising out of and in the course of employment resulting in injury to his low back and aggravation of a pre-existing condition thereof; that he was entitled to compensation for permanent partial disability to the extent of twenty per cent, or eighty weeks at $42.50; that the Employee was not entitled to an allowance for healing period, and denied his claim for medical expense. This finding is at some variance with that of the Industrial Commission.

The Industrial Commission, by its final award, found from all the credible evidence that the Employee, on January 25, 1962, sustained an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment with the Employer, which resulted in an injury to the low back and aggravation of a pre-existing condition thereof, which entitled him to compensation for permanent partial disability to the extent of ten per cent, or forty weeks at $42.50 per week; that he was also entitled to a temporary total disability allowance for a healing period, limited to thirty-one days, or four and three-sevenths weeks, at the rate of $47.50 per week; and that, by reason of the Employer’s refusal to *26 furnish treatment, Employee was required to make payment to certain institutions and persons for expenses incurred for medical treatment, with a reimbursement to the Employee as and for hospital services. The total sum of the Commission’s finding was $3,262.11.

The Employee claims that while working on the assembly line of the Employer a transfer machine turned a car frame over onto another line and, in so doing, a tie rod on the car frame came in contact with a table, and that he was compelled to jump in order to avoid being struck, and was thereby caused to fall on a slick concrete floor. The accident occurred at the plant of the Chevrolet, Kansas City Division of General Motors. The Employee, according to his own statement, sustained a “hard sit-down type of fall on the floor”. The facts surrounding the alleged accident, together with his fall to the floor as described, were corroborated by a fellow employee who was an eye witness. The foreman testified that, immediately following the alleged accident, the Employee stated to him that, as the result of his jump and fall to the floor, he had injured his back.

The Employer’s first-aid room record indicates that, on January 25, 1962, the Employee claimed he had injured his back while working on the assembly line and under substantially the same facts and circumstances as described by Employee’s testimony. The Employee was taken to Menorah Hospital on January 25, 1962, where X-rays were made of the low back. He received no treatment and was discharged.

The record indicates the Employee returned to work on January 26 and continued to work until February 23, 1962. He was then given a ten-day suspension because of a shop rule violation. He returned to work on March 12 and 13, and terminated his job on March 14 because of increased pain and disability to his low back.

On March 14, the Employee consulted his family physician, Dr. Eshelam, M. D., and also Dr. C. C. McCullough, an orthopedic specialist. X-rays were taken and a lum-bo-sacral back support was prescribed, which he wore off and on from and after that date. On March 28, he was examined and X-rayed by Dr. Joseph Lichtor, M. D., an orthopedic surgeon, who found a bilateral defect in the fifth lumbar neural arch, known as “spondylolysis”; and, that this condition had existed for a long period of time. Dr. Lichtor, in describing this condition, stated that the term “spondylolysis” is sometimes referred to as a congenital or progressive congenital condition.

The Employee, following his voluntary termination of employment, moved to Bolivar, Missouri. There, as a self-employed person, he worked in the tree trimming business and as a pest control exterminator.

The Employee testified he continued to have pain and soreness in his low back following the January 25, 1962, accident, which became progressively worse and, on occasions, affected his lower extremities. In the fall of 1963, he attended a football game and sat on the wooden bleachers. After the game he went to a cafe and, while there, sitting on a stool, the pain in his back became so severe that, upon leaving, his back seemed to “give out” on him and he put his hand on a juke box and slowly slumped to the floor. Two or three days after the cafe incident, he was taken to Menorah Hospital in Kansas City, where Dr. Lichtor performed a laminectomy of L-5, and a spinal fusion from L-4 to S-l. This operation was performed on October 8, 1963. The Employee remained in the hospital until October 16, 1963, and then returned to his home where he remained in bed for approximately three weeks, thereafter being permitted gradual ambulation.

The Employer has, at all times, denied Employee’s claim for compensation, and has denied all allegations in the claim filed. Considering the answer as filed, it is assumed that the Employer denied that an accident did occur on January 25, 1962, since, in Point I of the Employer’s brief and argument, the statement is made that in a *27 Workmen’s Compensation case the plaintiff has the burden of proof to establish by competent and substantial evidence each and every element essential or necessary for his recovery.

The accident was reported by the Employee to the first-aid room, where a record was made confirming such accident. Since the evidence of the Employee, corroborated by an eye witness, and the Employer’s record stands uncontradicted as to the question of the accident, it follows that we should and do find that there was substantial and competent evidence upon which the Commission could base the finding that there was an accident involving the Employee while in the course of his employment.

It is evident that the Employer’s real contention in Point I of its brief concerns primarily the issue that there was no competent and substantial evidence to support the finding that the Employee sustained permanent partial disability as the result of the accident of January 25, 1962. As to this contention, the Employer urges that the Employee was involved in at least three incidents resulting in injury to his back, including the accident of January 25, 1962.

It is admitted by the Employee that, in June 1960, he had an accident which resulted in an injury to his back; that, subsequent thereto, he received heat treatments and, on several occasions, was treated by a chiropractor. He filed no claim by reason of this accident, nor is there any showing of any great loss of time as the result thereof, although the Employee does admit that from 1960 to 1962 he did, at times, have pain and soreness in his back while working on the assembly line.

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Bluebook (online)
397 S.W.2d 23, 1965 Mo. App. LEXIS 560, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mashburn-v-chevrolet-kansas-city-division-general-motors-corp-moctapp-1965.