New York Indemnity Co. v. Miller

1933 OK 303, 22 P.2d 107, 163 Okla. 283, 1933 Okla. LEXIS 720
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 9, 1933
Docket24068, 24079
StatusPublished
Cited by27 cases

This text of 1933 OK 303 (New York Indemnity Co. v. Miller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New York Indemnity Co. v. Miller, 1933 OK 303, 22 P.2d 107, 163 Okla. 283, 1933 Okla. LEXIS 720 (Okla. 1933).

Opinion

ANDREWS, J.

This is a consolidation of two original proceedings in this court whereby an award of the State Industrial Commission in favor of the claimant before the State Industrial Commission is sought to be reviewed. The award was for temporary total disability for 44 weeks at the rate of $18 per week. By the terms thereof the Pidelity & Casualty Company was required to pay compensation for 24 weeks and the New York Indemnity Company was required to pay compensation for 20 weeks. It was based on a finding that each of the insurance carriers was liable for a part of the disability.

That a disability may be caused by each of two accidental personal injuries was held by this court in C. E. Reynolds Drilling Co. v. Phillips, 163 Okla. 170, 22 P. (2d) 111, and Denver Producing & Refining Co. v. Phillips, 163 Okla. 106, 21 P. (2d) 42. The record in those cases shows that a claimant before the State Industrial Commission had sustained an accidental personal injury for which he had been awarded and paid compensation; that thereafter he sustained another independent accidental personal injury, for which he had been awarded and paid compensation; that he had suffered a change of condition, and that that change of condition was caused by each of the two independent accidental personal injuries. This court held therein that whether or not the disability was caused by each of the two independent accidental personal injuries was a question of fact to be determined by the State Industrial Commission from the *285 evidence. An award against each of the two insurance carriers was sustained by this court.

The record in this case shows that the claimant received an accidental personal injury on the 2nd day of February, 1931, while in the employment of the Ramsey Petroleum Corporation while the New York Indemnity Company was its insurance carrier. He was awarded compensation therefor for temporary total disability and the compensation awarded was paid. He returned to work for the Ramsey Petroleum Corporation about March 6, 1931, and continued to work for it until about November 27, 1931, at which time ho was again injured. At that time the Fidelity & Casualty Company of New York was the insurance carrier for the Ramsey Petroleum Corporation. The record shows 'that, by the second injury, in,the language of one of the physicians, one of the ribs of the claimant was “jerked loose again.” Thereafter a new claim was filed by the claimant. The two claims were consolidated before the Commission, and, after a series of hearings, the award complained of was made. The New York Indemnity Company filed a proceeding in this court to have the award reviewed, and the Fidelity & Casualty Company filed a proceeding in this court to have the award reviewed. Those proceedings were consolidated in this court.

While the Ramsey Petroleum Corporal ion is made a party petitioner herein, it is only a formal party petitioner, and it makes no contention that it is not liable for compensation for the determined temporary total disability of the claimant. It contends, however, that the award of $18 per week is erroneous as to the amount thereof. It contends that the award should have been at the rate of not to exceed $17.31 per week. It is right in that contention, for that was the ■ amount determined when the first award for temporary total disability was made, and that is the maximum amount, that could have been awarded under the evidence' shown by the record in this case. The record shows that the claimant worked for a wage of $4.50 per day when he worked. While he testified that he worked at the rate of $135 per month, he did not testifiy that he worked by the month, and the record shows that he did not work by the month.

The award for temporary total disability is correct as to the Ramsey Petroleum Corporation, except as to the rate of compensation. The State Industrial Commission is directed to vacate that award and to make a new award against the Ramsey Petroleum Corporation based on a weekly rate of compensation of $17.31. See Skelly Oil Co. v. Daniel, 154 Okla. 199, 7 P. (2d) 155.

The New York Indemnity Company contends that there is no competent evidence to support' the finding of the Commission that the claimant suffered any disability after March 6, 1931, as a result of the accidental injury sustained on February 2, 1931; that there was no change in the claimant’s condition which was caused by the injury sustained on February 2, 1931; and that the Commission erred in requiring it to pay the claimant any part of the compensation awarded.

The Fidelity & Casualty Company denies each of the contentions of the New York Indemnity Company, and contends that the Commission erred in requiring it to pay any portion of'the award made to the claimant.

An examination of the record in this case discloses that thei State Industrial Commission was in error in requiring each of the insurance carriers to pay part of the award ■made to the claimant. The record justifies no such order. While it may be difficult to determine whether the existing disability was caused by wliat occurred on February 2i, 1931, or by what occurred on November 27, 1981, that difficulty did not authorize the State Industrial Commission to make an award without a determination of the cause of the disability. Its determination that the disability was caused by what occurred on each of those dates finds no support in the record. The record shows that that disability was the result of either a recurrence of the injury sustained from the accident which occurred on February 2, 1931, or that it was caused by an independent intervening accident on November 27, 1931. It was not caused by both.

In Phillips v. Holmes Express Co., 179 N. Y. Supp. 400, the record showed that an employee had his arm fractured, and that about four months later the fracture parted when he attempted to crank an automobile. It was held that the parting of the fracture was but a result of the first accident, and that the insurance carrier carrying in-mrrance at the time of the first accident was liable therefor. That court said :

‘ While it may be that part of the disability results from what occurred September 7th, the evidence is nevertheless clearly persuasive, if not, conclusive, that nothing would have occurred on' September 7th, if *286 it had not been for the accident on May 13th. The Commission finds that on September 7th, while attempting to crank an automobile, as the claimant ‘took hold of the crank handle, the fracture which he had sustained on May 13, 1198, again parted.’ The evidence justifies no other finding. There was no accident on Sejitember 7th, except as the condition caused by the accident in May was made worse. Clearly, if the claimant had not broken his arm in May, he would have sustained no injury in September. That is entirely clear from the record.

In Continental Casualty Co. v. Industrial Commission (Utah) 221 P. 852, the Supreme Court of Utah said:

“The question now is, Was the occurrence of December 4, 1922, an accident, or was it merely a recurrencce of the injury of July 1922? Had there been no former injury, the answer could not be otherwise than that Sabey suffered an injury by accident on December 4, 1922; but the later injury must be viewed in the light of the undisputed evidence.”

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Bluebook (online)
1933 OK 303, 22 P.2d 107, 163 Okla. 283, 1933 Okla. LEXIS 720, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-york-indemnity-co-v-miller-okla-1933.