Pickens-Bond Construction Co. v. Case

584 S.W.2d 21, 266 Ark. 323, 1979 Ark. LEXIS 1448
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedJuly 9, 1979
Docket78-181
StatusPublished
Cited by58 cases

This text of 584 S.W.2d 21 (Pickens-Bond Construction Co. v. Case) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pickens-Bond Construction Co. v. Case, 584 S.W.2d 21, 266 Ark. 323, 1979 Ark. LEXIS 1448 (Ark. 1979).

Opinion

John A. Fogleman, Justice.

Arguss Case suffered a com-pensable injury when he fell at least 25 feet from the fourth floor of a building in the course of his employment by Pickens-Bond Construction Company. The original injury occurred on or about February 2, 1973. On or about November 1, 1973, appellant slipped and fell and suffered a broken hip as he was walking across the floor on his crutches while attending a rehabilitation orientation. At a hearing before an administrative law judge, Case sought: a 15% penalty on account of the alleged violation of safety regulations under the United States Occupational Safety & Health Act of 1970; nursing services and related expenses; reimbursement for travel expenses; the provision for special appliances and improvements to his home to facilitate his daily activities, an increase of compensation from $49 to $66.50 per week from the time of the second injury; reimbursement for expenses incurred in connection with acupuncture treatments; and attorney’s fees on all such items, on the allegation that appellant had controverted all of them.

Upon appeal, the full commission held that:

Case was entitled to nursing services; his wife had adequately provided these services; Mrs. Case was entitled to compensation at the minimum wage rate for 24 hours a day, seven days a week from May 10, 1973 to May 15, 1974, except for a period of hospitalization; Case was entitled to continued nursing services by his wife for which she should be compensated at the minimum wage rate in Arkansas for 16 hours a day, seven days a week, beginning May 15, 1974, but that Case no longer needed nursing services for 24 hours per day; the hourly rate of compensation shall be increased as the minimum wage is increased; appellants should provide a whirlpool bath and seat and a lower extremity resistive exercise table and a hot water tank and housing adequate for the whirlpool equipment; appellants were liable for travel expenses between Case’s home and the places he received medical treatment or physical therapy, except for a trip for acupuncture treatments; maximum attorney’s fees were allowed upon controverted items.

Both parties appealed from the commission’s decision, but it was affirmed by the circuit court. Both parties appeal from the judgment of the circuit court. Appellants rely upon the following points for reversal:

I
A WORKMEN’S COMPENSATION CLAIMANT’S WIFE IS NOT ENTITLED TO BE COMPENSATED FOR ORDINARY SERVICES RENDERED HER INJURED HUSBAND AND THE COMMISSION’S AWARD OF REMUNERATION TO MRS. ARGUSS CASE WAS NOT JUSTIFIED BASED UPON THE EVIDENCE PRESENTED.
II
THE COMMISSION’S FINDING THAT PORTIONS OF THE AWARD HAD BEEN CONTROVERTED WAS NOT SUPPORTED BY SUBSTANTIAL EVIDENCE.
I

Appellants state that, based upon the evidence, the award for Mrs. Case for nursing services is unreasonable and that this portion of the award should be remanded for further consideration or dismissed. We can find no basis for dismissal, and no necessity for remand.

Ark. Stat. Ann. § 81-1311 (Repl. 1976) requires that the employer provide nursing services for an injured employee. In Sisk v. Philpott, 244 Ark. 79, 423 S.W. 2d 871, we sustained the award of compensation for nursing care by a relative. In Dresser Minerals v. Hunt, 262 Ark. 280, 556 S.W. 2d 138, we approved an award for the nursing services of a wife. We do not agree with appellants’ contention that Mrs. Case’s entitlement to compensation for nursing services for caring for her injured husband, or the liberal allowance for the period between May 10, 1973 and May 15, 1974, was not supported by substantial evidence, but we do agree that the allowance of compensation for a wife taking care of her husband, on the basis of 16 hours per day, beginning May 15, 1974, is unreasonable and not supported by substantial evidence.

As a result of his injuries, Case suffered sphinctive difficulties. When he was released from the hospital on May 10, 1973, he was in full control braces. Although he was able to walk without the bracing, he could not do so effectively. A catheter had been removed only two days earlier, but he continued to be incontinent of feces, for sometime. He was required to continue physical therapy twice a week as an outpatient. He had a post-phlebetic syndrome with some swelling. He was able to walk on crutches to some extent, but a wheelchair was required when he tired. After he was released, he experienced a urinary infection. He was able to do without a catheter but experienced involuntary micturation, and his difficulty in voiding continued for quite a while.

Although 18 months is normally considered as the period of potential healing where spinal cord injuries are concerned, his neurological improvement after four months was not satisfactory. Six months after the injury, he had no functional use of his legs from the knee down. There was weakness in his hips and he felt that the left hip socket tended to dislocate at times. Outpatient therapy with electric muscle stimulation two or three times per week was later prescribed. On November 1,1973, when Case fell, he sustained a fracture of the left femoral neck. Surgery was required and when he was discharged from the hospital he was instructed in non-weight bearing, walker ambulation and wheelchair use. Resumption of physical therapy was recommended. There was some retrogression in respect to bladder function, because catherization was again required in this later hospitalization. He seemed to reach a plateau about the middle of January, 1974, and a return to use of surgical elastic hose was recommended because of numbness in his feet and increased edema in the lower left extremity.

Case was returned to the hospital for one week in January, 1974, because of acute thrombophlebitis in this leg. He was discharged on anticoagulants and medication for blood count. Physical therapy to strengthen the muscles of his lower extremity and back were continued. When examined in April, 1974, he reported that he was doing quite well, except for a popping sensation from the left hip, which was neither painful nor annoying, when he did situps with someone holding his legs. He reached the end of his healing period in May, 1974, with a permanent physical impairment of the body as a whole, amounting to 80% to 95%, with chronic thrombophlebitis of the left lower extremity which would, if anything, increase his impairment. By December 5, 1974, Case was able to walk with a waddling gait with motor paralysis primarily in the muscle of the thigh. He still wore braces on both lower extremities and was emptying his bladder by use of the Crede maneuver.

Prior to May 29, 1975, Case had undergone 47 acupuncture treatments in Washington, D.C., but his feeling of relative improvement thereafter could not be objectively substantiated. Thereafter, he received additional acupuncture treatments, which improved his confidence in his walking, but his neurosurgeon found no objective evidence of improvement in motor or sensory function. In March, 1976, Case was suffering itermittent pain in his left hip region. He continued to have problems of urinary incontinence, but was free of infection.

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Bluebook (online)
584 S.W.2d 21, 266 Ark. 323, 1979 Ark. LEXIS 1448, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pickens-bond-construction-co-v-case-ark-1979.