Otoe Food Products Co. v. Cruickshank

3 N.W.2d 452, 141 Neb. 298, 142 A.L.R. 816, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 117
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedApril 17, 1942
DocketNo. 31344
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 3 N.W.2d 452 (Otoe Food Products Co. v. Cruickshank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Otoe Food Products Co. v. Cruickshank, 3 N.W.2d 452, 141 Neb. 298, 142 A.L.R. 816, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 117 (Neb. 1942).

Opinion

Messmore, J.

This is a compensation case. The employer alleged in its petition in the workmen’s compensation court and in the [299]*299district court that the employee suffered an injury to his right eye, for which he was paid compensation for temporary total disability and medical expenses; that the employee is claiming compensation benefits for the permanent total loss of vision in his right eye by reason of the injury. The employer then pleaded a second injury to the employee’s right eye, the details of which are shown in a statement of the evidence. The employee’s answer in the district court alleged that in the course of his employment he sustained an injury to his right eye, causing permanent total loss of vision. The compensation court granted an award of $15 a week for 125 weeks from and after February 27, 1939. This award was affirmed by the district court and from its judgment the employer appeals.

The record discloses that the employee had been employed by Otoe Food Products Company since 1930. At the time of the accident in question he was head fireman in charge of boilers, and on October 14, 1937, while in the course of his employment, a gland on a pump had broken and he was repairing it. He attempted to remove it with a center punch, and a piece of steel lodged in his right eye. The next morning he notified the employer of the accident and was requested to go to a physician for treatment, which he did. He later went to a specialist who treated him for some period of time. He developed a traumatic cataract on his eye, which began to show up October 19, 1937, and on or about January 23, 1939, he underwent an operation for removal of the cataract. According to the expert’s testimony this operation consisted of making “an incision in the front part of the eye with a small splinter knife for the purpose of opening up that eyeball wide enough to permit the cataract to be withdrawn. The incision is made in the edge of the cornea in an eye; looking straight at an eye that incision would follow the upper part of the curve of the colored part of the eye where it joins the white of the eye and it would occupy about a little less than one-half of the circumference of the cornea.” After the operation the incision was sutured, and the employee remained in the hospital until the fifth [300]*300day. On January 28, 1939, a test of the percentage of vision in the right eye was taken. It showed 90 per cent, vision with glass correction. His eye was bandaged; he then went to his home to convalesce and shortly thereafter, while he was sitting in a chair, his wife was playing with a small son, who lassoed her with' a rope around her ankles, causing her to fall; she extended her arm, striking the employee in his bandaged eye with her hand. He suffered pain, his eye became inflamed; he went immediately to the doctor, who-advised removal of the eye, but this was not done.

The medical testimony of the attending physician showed that the employee’s -eye had a puncture wound through the. front part of the eye a little above and toward the temple-from the center of the pupil, and that the puncture would have penetrated far enough to injure the crystalline lens, which lies one-eighth of an inch back in the eye, back of the cornea; that the cataract was caused by the trauma. After the operation, as heretofore described, the doctor testified, the employee’s vision was limited to the perception of light, and he was not able to count his fingers. His vision was one-tenth of 1 per cent, after the original accident on October 14, 1937, and from such time until the removal of the cataract it was less than one-tenth of 1 per cent, and continued that way until January 23, 1939, the date of the operation; therefore, the vision in the one eye was 90 per cent, corrected with glass. The attending physician in October, 1939, examined the employee, who- could count his fingers and had about 80 per cent, vision with correction with plus 13 lens,, which is like a magnifying glass 3/16 of an inch thick.

In August, 1940, at the time of the trial, the real condition as to vision was about the same, a trifle less than 80 per cent, with correction, and without correction was practically zero. Another -expert examined the employee’s right eye and found it was aphacic, with some scarring ifi thelimbus of the eye cornea; that there existed a surgical colobóma of the right iris; that there were some thick capsular-remains in the right pupillary space; that there had been surgical removal of the crystalline lens, and when such lens. [301]*301is removed there is “an imperfect field of vision, and a very small amount of vision with the applying of lens to the eye,” approximately 3/400, as recorded on Snellen charts, so that, after removal of the cataract, there would have to be applied some mechanical means of refraction. The doctor testified that the second accident to his eye had not changed employee’s condition with reference to vision; that the employee had peripheral vision, but not to the extent he would have had, had he not been injured; that without the aid of glasses he had no industrial vision. He also testified that the employee sees centrally with the injured eye alone, and, with the use of lens and considering the two eyes together, he still has industrial loss of vision in the right eye, since it is impossible to use the two eyes together when a heavy lens is required before the injured eye; that with the assistance of glass the employee still would not have coordination. The operating surgeon also testified to lack of coordination under the circumstances.

The employer called a specialist who referred to an especially constructed lens now being perfected for industrial purposes, like a telescopic lens, only'in the reverse, to reduce the retinal image so that it fits the one on the opposite side. He testified that with a size lens, as described by this expert, the vision of employee’s right eye could be corrected to 97 per cent, normal, and, in his opinion, with the aid of glasses there would be full coordination of both eyes. All of the experts agreed that without the aid of glasses the vision in the right eye for industrial purposes is gone. We deem the foregoing a sufficient statement of the medical testimony.

The employer’s contention is that the employee suffered a second accident which constituted the proximate cause of the loss of vision, if any, of his right eye, and that such accident was not suffered in the course of his employment. This is an affirmative allegation, the burden of proof being on the ■ employer to prove the same with reasonable certainty. The medical experts were unable to determine the degree of disability, if any, caused by the second accident, as distinguished from the first accident, or just how much, if any, the sec[302]*302ond accident contributed to the loss of vision of the employee’s right eye. It was not wilfully or negligently brought about through any conduct of the employee, and he in no manner contributed to it. We conclude, under the circumstances, that the employer’s contention that the second accident constituted the proximate cause of the loss of vision of the employee’s right eye is without merit.

The next question presented by the employer, — and one of first impression in this state, — is whether or not the compensation law of Nebraska contemplates that the court may take into consideration, in determining the loss of vision of an eye or eyes, the fact that vision may be restored or corrected, in part or in whole, by the use of glasses.

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Bluebook (online)
3 N.W.2d 452, 141 Neb. 298, 142 A.L.R. 816, 1942 Neb. LEXIS 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/otoe-food-products-co-v-cruickshank-neb-1942.