Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. v. Davis

1938 OK 37, 75 P.2d 435, 181 Okla. 530, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 15
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 18, 1938
DocketNo. 27679.
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 1938 OK 37 (Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. v. Davis) 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
Oklahoma Natural Gas Co. v. Davis, 1938 OK 37, 75 P.2d 435, 181 Okla. 530, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 15 (Okla. 1938).

Opinion

DAVISON, J.

In this case the Oklahoma Natural Gas Company seeks a review of an award of the State Industrial Commission made- to John J. Davis on the 27th day of November, 1936. The plarties will be referred to as petitioner and respondent. The first notice of the injury to the employee, or respondent, states that on January 18, 1936, he sustained an accidental injury resulting in a disability when one E-. M. Carter struck him with a car 'as the car skidded in the snow; that at the time both lower limbs below the knee were injured; that he also sustained an injury to his right hand; that at the time of the injury he was drawing $100 per month as a common laborer and was paid monthly.

The petitioner denied that the respondent was engaged in a hazardous employment and denied that he sustained- any accidental personal injury on that date, and alleged the facts to be that while respondent was standing on the roadside on said díate, a car driven by E. M. Carter, an employee of the petitioner, slightly bumped the respondent, but that said bump was of no consequence and did no injury. It is further alleged that if the respondent was injured, such injury did not arise out of and in the course of the employment; th'at he failed to notify the petitioner as by law required; that no medical attention became necessary and no request was made therefor. The allegations concerning - failure to give notice and necessity for medical attention are abandoned in the brief an-d are not considered in this cause.

The substance of the respondent’s testimony concerning the facts surrounding the accident is as follows; That on January 18, 1936. he went to a little store in a community furnished with gas by the petitioner and was told by one Tom Butner that they were out of gas again; that he saw that the gas was frozen so he stopped to thaw it out, and telephoned the company’s office and notified R. O. Gainés, a field- clerk for the petitioner, of the condition, and Gaines instructed him to go ahead and try to fix *531 it and he would send some one there; that he went to his own house to get coal oil and rags with which to accomplish the thawing and on his way back his car slid off the icy pavement into a ditch; after sending a boy to the house to get some one to help him. he was standing by the car, when lü. M. Carter, his boss and connection foreman, came by.

E. M. Carter testified that when he came upon the respondent he applied his brakes, but due to the snow and ice and slippery condition of the road, the brakes would not hold the car and it struck the respondent and knocked him down; that two days after the accident he went to the respondent’s home to see why he had not reported for work and the respondent then told him that be had a sore wrist; that ten or twelve days after the accident the respondent came back to work and started laying pipe which required ditching with a pick and shovel; that he never worked after February 26, 1066. that he came back on March 27th for liia pay check with a sore hand and said that Carter had done it when he hit him with the car.

In addition to the foregoing testimony, the respondent testified that he tried to work after the accident, but his hand was sore “plumb” to his shoulder, and that in February. 1936, he was breaking pipe connections with a sledge hammer, but his hand hurt so severely that he had to quit and did not work after that time. He further stated that he was working by the month and subject to call any day or night when the petitioner needed him, and that he had been called upon several occasions when the line was frozen.

I)r. A. N. Deaton testified that the respondent came to him on March 20, 1936, and told him that a truck of the petitioner struck him across his shins knocking him down; that it threw his head back and hit the back of his right hand; that his hand was bruised and swollen and there was drainage from the knuckle of the little finger; that the respondent received an injury to both legs and had evidence of scars on both legs when he examined him on June 10. 1936. He further testified that the respondent had a 50 per cent, partial disability ; that it would be better to take his finger off; that at the time of the hearing, July 22, 1936, three fingers of the hand were affected for a total of 75 per cent, disability, and that he attributed the disability to the accidental injury of January IS. 1936.

After the evidence was in, the State Industrial Commission, on November 27, 1936, entered in this cause an order in which appears the following findings of fact:

“On the 18th day of January, 1936, the claimant was in the employment of the respondent and engaged in a hazardous occupation, subject to and covered by the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Law, and that on said date he sustained an accidental injury to his right hand, arising out of and in the course of his employment with said respondent.
“2nd. That the claimant’s average monthly wage was $100.00 per month.
“3rd. That by reason of said accidental injury, the claimant was temporarily totally disabled from the 26th day of February, 1936, to the 22nd of July, 1936, or 20 weeks and two days bejmnd the five-day waiting period.”

The first proposition in the petitioner’s brief is that there is no competent evidence to support the finding of the Industrial Commission that the business of the respondent is hazardous within the terms and meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Law. From the evidence there is no question but that the petitioner was the respondent’s employer and that it operated the pipe line, which the respondent was attempting to thaw on the day his injury occurred. Certainly, his efforts on that day could be classified as manual labor, and, furthermore, the petitioner. in its effort to show that the respondent was later able to do his work, established the, undisputed fact that the digging of ditches was included in his employment. From these facts, we believe it to be conclusive that the business of the petitioner is one of the hazardous employments named in section 13349. O. S. 1931, more especially the “construction and operation of pipe lines," and that the respondent’s employment was manual labor connected with said business, thus coming within thp meaning of the term “hazardous employment,” as defined by section 13350, O. S. 1931. If the petitioner relied upon the proposition that the respondent’s employment was not hazardous within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Law, it should have submitted some substantial evidence in support of this contention. In Petroleum Chemical Corporation v. State Industrial Commission, 154 Okla. 67, 6 P. (2d) 775, we said:

“The burden is upon a claimant before the State Industrial Commission to prove that the relationship of employer and employee in a business within the terms of the act existed at the time of the injury *532 complained of; but when that relationship is shown, there is a presumption, by reason of section 7295, O. O. S. 1921, that the claim comes within the provisions of the act.

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Bluebook (online)
1938 OK 37, 75 P.2d 435, 181 Okla. 530, 1938 Okla. LEXIS 15, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oklahoma-natural-gas-co-v-davis-okla-1938.