Petty v. Associated Transport, Inc.

167 S.E.2d 38, 4 N.C. App. 361, 1969 N.C. App. LEXIS 1498
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedApril 30, 1969
DocketNo. 6915IC153
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 167 S.E.2d 38 (Petty v. Associated Transport, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Petty v. Associated Transport, Inc., 167 S.E.2d 38, 4 N.C. App. 361, 1969 N.C. App. LEXIS 1498 (N.C. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

Morris, J.

The deputy commissioner found the following facts:

“1. The deceased employee was a Caucasian male, approximately fifty-seven years of age as of the date of the injury, [363]*363February 13, 1966. He was employed by the defendant employer as an over-the-road truck driver and regularly performed his duties since the date of his employment in 1964.
2. The deceased employee’s average weekly wage was in an amount sufficient to entitle him to the maximum benefits under the North Carolina Workmen’s Compensation Act, in that his average weekly wage was $150.00.
3. As stipulated, the deceased employee was injured by accident arising out of and in the course of his employment on February 13, 1966, (a fellow employee was actually driving the truck) while riding in the truck and a rock broke the window of the truck and struck the plaintiff on the right jaw, causing a fracture of the mandible with nonunion of symphysis.
4. The deceased employee was hospitalized at Prince George General Hospital at Cheverly, Maryland, on the date of the accident where Dr. Kavanaugh performed a multiple open' reduction and on February 15, 1966, Dr. Kavanaugh performed further surgery by way of a reduction of the fracture of the maxilla and application of arch bars. The deceased employee was discharged from the Maryland hospital on February 22, 1966, to his home in North Carolina where follow-up care was to be received. Accordingly, the plaintiff saw several doctors in the Burlington area and Dr. Peacock at the Memorial Hospital at Chapel Hill, North Carolina.
5. During one of the medical consultations it was discovered that there was an improper healing or nonunion of the fracture, which necessitated further surgery. The deceased employee was admitted to the North Carolina Memorial Hospital and underwent further surgery and he was discharged from the North Carolina Memorial Hospital on April 17, 1966, and from Dr. Peacock’s services on or about June 15, 1966.
6. In the period following his release from the Chapel Hill Hospital, plaintiff experienced periods of depression and was seen in the Alamance County Health Clinic by a psychiatrist. All evidentiary medical records and all medical evidence points to the fact that plaintiff did not suffer any brain injury in the accident; that the deceased employee knew the nature and extent of his surroundings and that the depression experienced was the normal reaction to the nature and length of time of recovery for the accident and subsequent operation, all of which the undersigned finds as a fact.
[364]*3647. As set forth above, the undersigned finds as a fact that there is no causal relationship between the self-inflicted injuries resulting in death on July 7, 1966, and the industrial injury sustained on February 13, 1966.”

Based on the foregoing findings of fact, he made the following conclusion of law:

'T. There is no causal relationship shown connecting the admitted industrial accident of February 13, 1966, and the self-inflicted injuries resulting in death on July 7, 1966. Painter v. Mead Corporation, 268 N.C. 741.”

On appeal, the Full Commission entered an opinion and award. The portions pertinent to this appeal follow:

“Counsel for plaintiff and counsel for defendant appeared before the Full Commission and ably argued their respective contentions. The Full Commission has reviewed all the competent evidence received in this case together with the Opinion and Award of Commissioner Marshall. It is the opinion of the Full Commission that the correct results were reached by Commissioner Marshall. However, the Full Commission is further of the opinion that the basis for the decision should rest on the provision contained in G.S. 97-12 concerning the willful intention of the employee to kill himself, rather than upon the basis of causal relationship.
TheRepoee, the Full Commission amends the Opinion and Award heretofore filed in this case as follows:
(1) Finding of Fact No. 7 as the same appears on page 5 of the Opinion and Award is hereby stricken out and there is substituted in lieu thereof the following: ‘7. The deceased employee shot himself to death with his own pistol on 13 February 1966, deceased having obtained such pistol on 12 February 1966 from a policeman to whom he had loaned it. The death of deceased employee was occasioned by his willful and premeditated intention to kill himself.’
(2) The conclusion of law as the same appears on page 5 of the Opinion and Award is hereby stricken out and there is substituted in lieu thereof the following: ‘The death of the deceased employee was occasioned by the willful and premeditated intention of the employee to kill himself. The plaintiff is therefore not entitled to compensation. G.S. 97-12; cf. Painter v. Mead Corporation, 258 N.C. 741.’
[365]*365The Full Commission is further of the opinion that the exceptions as filed by plaintiff are without substantial merit; that the findings of fact and conclusion of law of Commissioner Marshall, as above amended, are supported by the competent evidence and the applicable law; and that the correct results under the law and facts has been reached. Theeefoee, the Full Commission overrules the exceptions as filed by plaintiff and adopts as its own the Opinion and Award of Commissioner Marshall, as above amended. The results reached in such Opinion and Award be, and they are hereby Affiemed, as amended.”

Plaintiff contends that the Full Commission did not independently find the facts embraced by finding of fact No. 6, that this finding is not supported by the evidence, that the Full Commission erred in overruling plaintiff’s exceptions and in affirming the opinion and award of Commissioner Marshall, that it was error to rest the decision on G.S. 97-12 rather than upon causal relationship and that the Full Commission’s finding of fact No. 7 is not supported by the evidence and its conclusion of law is not supported by the findings of fact.

G.S. 97-38 provides for the payment of compensation “[i]f death results approximately from the accident and within 2 years thereafter, or while total disability still continues and within six years after the accident . . .” but G.S. 97-12 provides that “[n]o compensation shall be payable if the injury or death was occasioned by the intoxication of the employee or by the willful intention of the employee to injure or kill himself or another.”

Plaintiff calls attention in her brief to the case of Painter v. Mead, 258 N.C. 741, 129 S.E. 2d 482, wherein our Supreme Court discussed under what circumstances suicide following injury by accident may be compensable. The Court discussed the case of In Re Sponatski, 220 Mass. 526, 108 N.E. 466, embodying what is commonly referred to as the Sponatski rule, then the majority rule. Justice Higgins, writing for the Court, said: [366]*366Plaintiff argues that the Commission has in this case erroneously-applied the Sponatski rule in denying an award. In her brief plaintiff very ably reviews the case law in other jurisdictions and correctly, we think, concludes that Sponatski is no longer the majority rule.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
167 S.E.2d 38, 4 N.C. App. 361, 1969 N.C. App. LEXIS 1498, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/petty-v-associated-transport-inc-ncctapp-1969.