McClelland v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad

137 Pa. Super. 158
CourtSuperior Court of Pennsylvania
DecidedSeptember 29, 1939
DocketAppeal, No. 4
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 137 Pa. Super. 158 (McClelland v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Superior Court of Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McClelland v. Baltimore & Ohio Railroad, 137 Pa. Super. 158 (Pa. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

Opinion by

Cunningham, J.,

It is not controverted by the appellant employer in this workmen’s compensation case that the claimant, while in the course of his employment as one of its trackmen, suffered an accidental injury to one of his feet on March 31, 1933.

In an open agreement for compensation for total disability, at the rate of $11.07 per week, from April 8, 1933, the accident was thus described: “Rail rolled on left foot, mashing same.”

In a supplemental agreement, dated February 10, 1934, it was recited that compensation had been paid to December 22, 1933, “at which time a final settlement receipt was executed,” but, as claimant was then unable to resume his employment, the parties agreed that compensation should be continued “until the requirements of [the statute] have been met and fully satisfied.”

Under this agreement compensation was paid until September 4,1936, — in an aggregate amount of $1970.46 and for a total period of 176-2/7 weeks.

In the meantime — August 26, 1936, — the employer filed its petition for termination upon the ground that claimant had “ceased to suffer any disability which results from his accident,” but “is suffering disability from a condition which is not caused by the said accident.” These averments were denied by the claimant in his answer.

The contention of the employer upon the issue thus framed was that claimant’s injury had resolved itself into the “permanent loss of the use of [his] foot,” within the meaning of Section 306(c) of our Work[161]*161men’s Compensation Act of June 2, 1915, P. L. 736, as further amended by the Act of April 13, 1927, P. L. 186, 77 PS §513; that the compensation fixed by the statute “for all disability resulting from [this] permanent injury” is “sixty-five per centum of wages during one hundred and fifty weeks”; and that as claimant had been paid at that rate for 176-2/7 weeks the “requirements of the statute” had been more than “met.”

When the petition and answer came on for hearing before a referee on. March 9, 1937, the employer (having the burden of proof) sought to sustain the averments of its petition by the testimony of Dr. Paul R. Seibert; claimant testified in his own behalf and called Drs. R. M. Christie, J. O. Donaldson and J. M. Dunkle.

The referee’s principal finding of fact was that claimant while “suffering with a congenital neurological stigmata due to his physical makeup, he sustained an injury to his left foot which hastened his disability, and as a result of which he is now totally disabled.” An order dismissing the employer’s petition was entered.

No finding was made upon the issue framed by the pleadings and testimony — whether the use of the foot had been permanently lost.

The board, upon the employer’s appeal, reviewed the testimony taken by the referee, affirmed his finding of total disability, and added its own additional finding that “the testimony is unanimous that the claimant is now suffering the loss of the industrial use of his left foot.”

For the purposes of this appeal, the' action of the board in affirming the dismissal of the petition to terminate may properly be considered as an award under Section 306(a) for total disability for a possible additional period of 323-5/7 weeks — a total of 500 weeks. The judgment entered by the court bélow in favor of the claimant, and from which the appeal now before [162]*162us was taken by the employer, was entered upon that basis.

That there was competent testimony before the referee sustaining findings that the use of claimant’s foot had been lost and that he was totally disabled at the date of the hearing is not questioned by counsel for appellant. His contention is that there is no competent evidence upon this record of a “destruction, derangement or deficiency” of any organs in any part of claimant’s body, other than his left foot, causing any disability, as a direct result of the permanent injury, “separate, apart and distinct” from the disability normally flowing from the loss of the use of his foot. In other words, he contends that whatever “pain, annoyance and disability to work,” this record discloses claimant is suffering was included under the phrase “all disability,” as used by the legislature in the first sentence of paragraph (c) of Section 306, and has been fully compensated.

It is evident that the board acted under the mistaken impression that if there was merely proof that the use of the foot had been lost and that claimant was totally disabled an award under paragraph (a) for a potential period of 500 weeks could be justified. In thus acting the board ignored the express language of paragraph (c) as construed by our Supreme Court in Lente v. Luci, 275 Pa. 217, 119 A. 132; Bausch v. Fidler, 277 Pa. 573, 121 A. 507; Clark v. Clearfield Opera House Co. et al., 275 Pa. 244, 119 A. 136; and by this court in O’Donnell v. S. Fayette Twp. School Dist. et al., 105 Pa. Superior Ct. 488, 161 A. 887; Casper v. State Workmen’s Insurance Fund et al., 132 Pa. Superior Ct. 96, 200 A. 186; Croll v. Miller et al., 133 Pa. Superior Ct. 448, 2 A. 2d 527; Rednock v. Westmoreland Coal Co., 132 Pa. Superior Ct. 89, 200 A. 114; Zuro v. McClintic Marshall Co., 129 Pa. Superior Ct. 143, 195 A. 160; Savolaine v. Matthew Leivo & Sons et al., 131 Pa. Su[163]*163perior Ct. 508, 512, 200 A. 243; Brown, v. State Workmen’s Insurance Fund et al., 131 Pa. Superior Ct. 226, 228, 200 A. 174, and kindred cases. See also Skinner’s Pennsylvania Workmen’s Compensation Law, 3d Ed. p. 471.

It lias been repeatedly held that the amount specified in paragraph (c) to be paid for the permanent injuries therein enumerated “includes all incapacity to labor that may be connected therewith, whether it be total, partial or no incapacity at all.” In Oroll v. Miller, supra, this court said: “If anything has been settled it is that the extent of disability, incapacity to labor, or loss of earning power, consequent upon the destruction, or permanent loss of the use, of any of the members of the body enumerated in section 306(c) is wholly immaterial. In the case of some employees, the loss of a leg or an arm may entirely destroy their earning power depending upon the kind of work for which they are fitted, their age, temperament, and other circumstances, while in others the loss of a member may not cause any diminution in their earning power.”

After an appeal had been taken by the employer from the action of the board to the common pleas, the writer of the opinion for the board, Commissioner Swaney, apparently realizing the findings would not support the award, filed a so-called clarifying opinion, concluding with the following additional finding: “The claimant has suffered the loss of the industrial use of his left foot and in addition to the loss of the industrial use of his left foot he has other disabilities resulting from the injury. All the testimony as we can see shows that this claimant is totally disabled not only by reason of having lost the industrial use of his left foot, but that the other disabilities he is suffering from at this time are the result of the injury. Therefore, he is entitled to compensation for total disability.”

This finding is seriously defective in that it contains [164]

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Bluebook (online)
137 Pa. Super. 158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcclelland-v-baltimore-ohio-railroad-pasuperct-1939.