Petroleum Casualty Co. v. Seale

4 S.W.2d 90, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 187
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 2, 1928
DocketNo. 9095.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 4 S.W.2d 90 (Petroleum Casualty Co. v. Seale) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Petroleum Casualty Co. v. Seale, 4 S.W.2d 90, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 187 (Tex. Ct. App. 1928).

Opinion

GRAVES, J.

Under a jury’s verdict upon special issues finding him to have sustained 85 per cent, of “permanent partial incapacity” to labor as a result of injuries sustained in the course of his employment for the Humble Company, the appellee was awarded judgment against appellant as the insurer for 60 per cent, of his average weekly wages for 300 weeks, as in compliance with the last paragraph of section 12 of R. S. 1925, art. 8306.

Appellant, through this appeal, protests that the appellee by his pleadings and proof, confined the injury and disability thus found to be partial to his right foot, and therefore, under the “specific injury” provisions of section 12, could in no event recover for more than the total loss of the use of the foot; that is, 60 per cent, of his average weekly wages for 125 weeks. A superstructure of corollaries is thus built upon this assumed mudsill to the effect that:

(1) A series of its requested special issues designed to elicit whether partial incapacity in the use of the right foot was suffered after total incapacity therein ceased, and, if so, the per cent, and duration thereof, should have been given.

(2) That the trial court’s special issue No. 2, “Do you find that the plaintiff has sustained a permanent partial incapacity?” should have submitted the extent and duration of the claimed disability separately.

(3) That the verdict and judgment fixing the disability sustained at 85 per cent, are not supported by the evidence.

The purport of additional propositions is that the evidence failed to show wage-earning capacity after the injury; hence was insufficient to support any recovery under section 11 of article 8306, and, in any event, the judgment should be so reformed as to provide for retention of jurisdiction by the court “for the purpose of reviewing or modifying the award on proof of change of condition, mistake, or fraud.”

None of these contentions, except the last one, we think, can be sustained. The first of them rests upon two general arguments: (1) That the appellee’s pleadings and proof limited the permanent injury found to the impaired use of a specific member, his right foot, wherefore the period of his compensation could not at most exceed the 125 weeks prescribed in section 12 for the entire loss of the use of the foot; (2) that the last paragraph of that section, relative to “all other cases of partial incapacity,” being in pari ma-teria with all the preceding ones, must be construed together with them and held to refer to the same thing — that is, the cases of partial incapacity in the 'Use of a specific member — and to allow no other recoveries than those scheduled therein.

This last-stated view of the meaning of the paragraph quoted from is directly contrary to £he construction put upon it by the Commission of Appeals in Texas Employers’ Insurance Ass’n v. Moreno, 277 S. W. at page 84, and cannot be adopted by this court, which fully agrees with the interpretation there tríade.

While the only question decided in the Moreno Case was that the recovery therein, “based in part upon section 10, resulting from injuries not specified in section 12, precludes recovery under the last paragraph of section 12 for partial incapacity due to partial loss of usefulness of the arm,” the court in decid- ■ ing it construed all the provisions of the Compensation Act involved in the case at bar, holding that other recoveries than those scheduled for specified injuries in its preceding sections were permissible under its last one; in other words, as we understand the view taken of the statute as a whole in this respect, if there be permanent but not totally disabling capacity resulting from injuries to the foot itself, or, along with it, to other dependent bodily powers as well — that is, permanent partial incapacity from such injuries as do not amount to the total loss of the foot or of its use, it being neither severed nor left entirely useless — it is compensable under this last paragraph of section 12 at the straight 60 per cent, of the employee’s average weekly wages, multiplied by the percentage of the consequent incapacity, for a weekly period not exceeding 300 weeks.

That was precisely the character of Moreno’s explicitly approved recovery for the second 200 weeks (his first 200 weeks being for the time he was totally incapacitated, based upon section 10), and it was the character of all the recovery had by Seale in this cause. As was likewise the case with Moreno, Seale made no effort to recover for partial incapacity for work under section 11, and, had he done so, probably would have failed under this conclusion of the court in the former’s case:

“It is not necessary for us to decide whether or not one could recover under that section and also for partial incapacity under the last paragraph of section 12. But we think they could not. We believe the latter section refers to partial loss of usefulness of the members of the body referred .to in section 12, and that, with reference to such partial incapacity, including disfigurement of such members, it takes the place of section 11, which refers to partial incapacity from general causes.”

As 'concerns the claim for express limitation of the case as made for the appellee to the schedules prescribed in the other paragraphs of section 12 than the last one, we can *92 neither so construe the pleadings nor proof. The material averments of the petition were:

“(2) That on and about the 24th day of February, 1926, the plaintiff received an injury during the course of his employment in Harris county, Tex., that an I-beam fell upon his right foot, breaking four bones, and dislocating” his toes, and seriously and permanently injuring him. That at the time of receiving said injury he was earning the sum of $4 per day, whereby he was entitled to have and receive of and from the defendant herein compensation at the rate of $13.86 per week during such time as he shall be incapacitated from labor. * * *
“(6) Plaintiff would show to the court that, as a result of the injury which he so received, he is permanently injured; that he is a laborer, dependent upon his feet in laboring; that his employment requires the use of two good and sound feet, without which he cannot obtain and retain employment as a laborer; that the bones of his feet were broken and have not properly healed or united, nor have his toes resumed a normal position, and he is advised and beKeves that his said injuries are permanent, and, if so, he is entitled to have and receive compensation for 401 weeks after the date of injury at the rate of $13.85 per week, or to wit, $5,540, less 8 payments $110.80, or a balance of $5,429.20. * * *
“(8) Wherefore premises considered, plaintiff prays for citation against the defendant in the terms of the law, and on final hearing hereof each and every matter and thing connected with his claim be inquired into and ascertained and adjudicated, that the extent and nature of his injury be established, his compensation fixed, and the duration thereof ascertained, and that he have judgment for the amount of his compensation in one lump, to wit, $5,429.20, together with costs. And he prays for all such other and further relief, general and special, as he might be hereunto entitled, at law or in equity, or under the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, and will ever pray.”

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Semmes Nurseries, Inc. v. McVay
181 So. 2d 331 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1965)
Texas Employers' Insurance v. Holmes
196 S.W.2d 390 (Texas Supreme Court, 1946)
Traders & General Ins. Co. v. Snow
114 S.W.2d 682 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1938)
Pate v. Security Union Ins. Co.
54 S.W.2d 355 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1932)
Union Indemnity Co. v. Drake
42 S.W.2d 839 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1931)
Maryland Casualty Co. v. Haley
29 S.W.2d 458 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1930)
Southern Surety Co. v. Shoemake
16 S.W.2d 950 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1929)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 S.W.2d 90, 1928 Tex. App. LEXIS 187, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/petroleum-casualty-co-v-seale-texapp-1928.