Pickering Lumber Co. v. Campbell

1931 OK 20, 295 P. 596, 147 Okla. 158, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 733
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 27, 1931
Docket21025
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 1931 OK 20 (Pickering Lumber Co. v. Campbell) 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
Pickering Lumber Co. v. Campbell, 1931 OK 20, 295 P. 596, 147 Okla. 158, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 733 (Okla. 1931).

Opinion

OULLISON, J.

This is an original proceeding in this court to review an order and award made by the State Industrial Commission December 11, 1929, in favor of respondent, James A. Campbell, hereinafter called the claimant, and against the Pickering' Lumber Company and Consolidated Underwriters, hereinafter called' petitioners.

The facts out of which this controversy arose are these:

The claimant, while employed by petitioner Pickering- Lumber Company; was injured during the course of such employment on October 27, 1928. Claimant, a laborer, together with five or six other men, was engaged in loading- a rig timber on a skid, when the skid upon which claimant was standing flew up and threw claimant to the ground in such a manner that claimant fell to the ground on his head and hands with his arms doubled up, which fall resulted' in a sprain to claimant’s right wrist and injured his left arm at the elbow. Claimant was attended 'by physicians engaged by petitioner lumber company — received local treatment for his injuries — and after four days hospitalization was discharged and shortly- thereafter left the employ of the petitioner company and returned to his home at Pawhuska, Okla.

On December 27, 1928, the claimant filed claim for compensation before the Industrial Commission.

The record' shows that thereafter, January 31, 1929, claimant and the two petitioners herein entered into a stipulation and receipt, by the terms of which it appears that claimant was temporarily totally disabled by reason of the above accident, from the date of said accident to November 29, 192S, and payment for compensation therefor was made to claimant in the sum of $61.56, which stipulation and receipt was approved hy the Industrial Commission on February 8, 1929, and which agreement recited that the nature of the injury sought to be compensated was an “injured wrist.”

Thereafter, and on March 16, 1929, claimant filed with the Commission a motion to reopen the ease, alleging- that the settlement heretofore recited was made under a mistake of fact, in that claimant did not know at the time of signing such stipulation and receipt that the head of the left radius of claimant’s arm was fractured by reason of the aforesaid accident.

Evidence was thereafter adduced, at various intervals, before the Commission in support of claimant’s motion to reopen the case, at the conclusion of which the petitioners filed demurrers, which were by the Commission overruled.

Thereafter, December 11, 1929, the Commission entered its order holding that the *159 stipulation and receipt, above referred to, was founded upon mutual mistake of fact and should be set aside; that claimant was disabled from October 27, 1928 (the date of the accident), to July 29, 1929, and awarded claimant compensation for said period of time in the sum of $592.51, less the $61.56 paid claimant under the aforesaid stipulation and receipt, and continued the cause for further hearing to determine the extent of disability beyond July 29, 1929.

From said order the petitioners come to this court on review, assigning as error:

(1) That the Commission erred in finding and holding that the stipulation and receipt was entered into undee mutual mistake of facts and setting the same aside.

(2) That the Commission erred in holding claimant did not have any wage earning capacity from October 27, 1928 (the date of the accident), to July 29, 1929, by -reason of said injury, and awarding him compensation for such period of time.

First.

Was the stipulation and receipt heretofore referred to entered into under mutual mistake of fact?

The stipulation and receipt itself shows that the injury sought to be compensated by such agreement was an “injured wrist.” No mention whatever is made in said stipulation and receipt as to any injury sustained by claimant to his left elbow.

The evidence shows that at the time of the accident and during the time claimant was receiving treatment in the hospital for his wrist, he experienced pain in his left elbow, but it was considered by the claimant and the doctors as a trivial injury. The testimony of eláimant discloses that the attending physician advised him there was nothing seriously wrong with his left elbow and that claimant himself could treat it for, soreness by the application of linaments, which claimant did. » -

The evidence shows that after undergoing hospital treatment for four days, claimant returned to his home in Pawhuska, and lived with his family and assisted in some minor details in the running of - a filling station operated by the family'.

On January 31, 1929, the claimant and petitioners entered into the aforesaid stipulation and receipt for compensation covering claimant’s injured wrist.

That claimant thereafter returned to Seminole the first week in February, 1929, and worked a few hours doing manual labor for a contractor, but was forced to quit work for the reason he had no strength in his left arm.

Claimant again returned to his home, and on February 26, 1929, was examined by Dr. Eoscoe Walker, whose testimony discloses that claimant at that time was suffering from a fracture of the left elbow and that from the history of the case the fracture was caused by the injury received by claimant in October, 1928, while in the employ of petitioner lumber company. The doctor further testified that claimant was incapable of performing manual labor, and that it might be from six to eight months before the claimant could perform manual labor.

While the medical testimony is conflicting as to the question of fracture to claimant’s left elbow, there is evidence to the effect that the left elbow was fractured and that the fracture was caused byl the accidental injury received by claimant on October 28, 1928, arising out of and in the course of his employment with petitioner lumber company.

The evidence further shows that the injury to claimant’s left elbow was considered by all as trivial, and that the same was not X-rayed or the fracture discovered until in February, 19-29, two or three weeks following the date upon which the aforesaid stipulation and receipt releasing petitioners from further liability was entered into.

The record convinces us that the stipulation and receipt was entered into for the sole purpose of compensating claimant for the known injury to his “wrist,” and that the probable existence of a fracture to the claimant’s elbow was not within the contemplation of the parties at the time and did not enter into the consideration.

The stipulation and receipt shows that the nature of the injury sought to be compensated by such agreement was an “injured wrist,” and the record shows that the parties to the agreement were laboring under a mutual mistake of fact; that both parties were unaware of the fracture to claimant’s left elbow; that there was no intention on the part of the parties to settle for anything except the injured wrist, the compensation for which injury was fixed by the parties at temporary total disability for a period of four weeks.

It is well settled that a mutual mistake of fact, as shown by the record herein, will justify rescission of a release from liability for personal injuries.

In St. Louis-San Francisco Ry. Co. v. Cauthen, 112 Okla.

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

Related

Fisher v. Owens-Corning Fiberboard
868 F.2d 1175 (Tenth Circuit, 1989)
Fisher v. Owens-Corning Fiberglass Corp.
868 F.2d 1175 (Tenth Circuit, 1989)
Birch v. Keen
1969 OK 11 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1969)
Dansby v. Buck
373 P.2d 1 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1962)
Denton v. Utley
86 N.W.2d 537 (Michigan Supreme Court, 1957)
Special Indemnity Fund v. Arnold
1948 OK 270 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1948)
Tulsa City Lines, Inc. v. Mains
107 F.2d 377 (Tenth Circuit, 1939)
K. C. Motor Co. v. Miller
1939 OK 186 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1939)
J. E. Mabee, Inc. v. Reynolds
1931 OK 569 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1931)
G. S. & C. Drilling Co. v. Pennington
1931 OK 178 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1931 OK 20, 295 P. 596, 147 Okla. 158, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 733, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pickering-lumber-co-v-campbell-okla-1931.