Rund v. Cessna Aircraft Co.

518 P.2d 518, 213 Kan. 812, 1974 Kan. LEXIS 447
CourtSupreme Court of Kansas
DecidedJanuary 26, 1974
Docket47,146
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 518 P.2d 518 (Rund v. Cessna Aircraft Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Kansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rund v. Cessna Aircraft Co., 518 P.2d 518, 213 Kan. 812, 1974 Kan. LEXIS 447 (kan 1974).

Opinions

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Schroeder, J.:

This appeal arises from a proceeding under the Workmen’s Compensation Act (K. S. A. 44-501, et seq.) wherein the respondent employer and its insurance carrier appeal from a decision of the district court granting claimant a running award for temporary total disability together with past and future medical benefits.

The basic issue on appeal is whether claimant’s psychiatric problems, accounting for the sizeable award, are compensable under the facts and circumstances presented by the record.

The evidence presented to the workmen’s compensation examiner is summarized as follows:

The parties stipulated that on August 23,1971, Mrs. Mable Rund, claimant, was employed by the Cessna Aircraft Company, respondent, and was governed by the Kansas Workmen’s Compensation Act. On that date claimant, age 41, testified she was engaged in the routine tasks associated with her job. Just before noon she was in the process of pushing a cart of six or eight machine parts to an oven to have them baked. While in route to the oven claimant’s left foot slipped on some solvent or degreaser. Her left foot went out from under her and twisted as she hung onto the cart. Claimant immediately felt severe pain in her knee, and she thought it went out of its socket. Since it was noon, claimant said she painfully limped approximately 50 feet to the place where she ate her sack lunch. After lunch she made her way another 100 feet to the first aid room. Upon arriving at first aid claimant explained what had occurred to the nurse, Mrs. Bennett. Claimant testified Mrs. Bennett paid little attention to her problem and merely gave her some aspirin. Claimant continued working the rest of the day.

The following day the claimant again went to work. Some tim^ during the first part of the morning claimant returned to first aid because she said her foot, ankle and lower leg were swollen. By claimant’s description her ankle, foot, lower leg and knee were swollén twice their normal size. On this occasion Mrs. Bennett offered to apply heat treatment but claimant refused because she assumed she would have to undress for it, and she was afraid some [814]*814ropp might come into the room. On this day claimant remained on the job.

The first thing on the next day the claimant went to first aid and reported to Mrs. Bennett that during the night her back began hurting and the pain had intensified from the hip all the way down. The claimant described herself as “. . . dragging from my waist down to my foot, just dragging my whole leg.” Claimant testified Mrs. Bennett immediately told her to see the doctor and not to clock off or tell anybody. Claimant conjectures, “. . . because I looked pretty bad and I was walking pretty badly. I was just dragging and she signed me out and I went on company time.”

The claimant was sent to see Dr. Crawford who is the respondent’s company doctor. At this session, according to claimant, the doctor merely took X-rays and prescribed pain pills for her. The rlarmanf returned to work for about two and one half hours and then went home. The next day the claimant did not feel like working so she called and said she was sick. Claimant did not return to work for some time. She continued to see Dr. Crawford a couple of times a week. Claimant testified that Dr. Crawford told her the reason she was suffering so badly was because her body was twisted and sprained from her feet to her head, and that she would not heal for an indeterminable period of time. Eventually, Dr. Crawford referred claimant to Dr. Jarrott, an orthopedic surgeon.

According to the claimant, Dr. Jarrott took several X-rays of her anide, knee and back. At this time she was particularly concerned with the pain in her hip. She received a cortisone injection on one occasion from Dr. Jarrott.

Subsequently, upon the recommendation of her union, claimant went to see a Dr. Taylor. Dr. Taylor suggested claimant go see Dr. Moe, a psychiatrist with the Hutchinson Mental Health Institute. Very few questions were asked of claimant concerning her contacts with Dr. Moe. However, she did testify that Dr. Moe told her she could not return to work and that it would probably be a long while before she did.

Finally, on November 2, 1971, the claimant received a call from Dr. Crawford’s office that she was released to return to work. Claimant was shocked to receive this information. She had not seen Dr. Crawford for approximately three weeks or Dr. Jarrott for about a week, and was currently going to see Dr. Moe. She did [815]*815not feel that she was ready to return to work at that time. Following instructions, however, she reported to work that afternoon. She warned the foreman that he should keep a close watch on her because she was too weak to work. She was doing some rather heavy work that afternoon and according to her, soon became very dizzy. She asked another employee to tell the foreman she was about to pass out. The foreman, Mr. Carlton, checked on the claimant and she told Mr. Carlton she could make it to first aid by holding onto tables or the walls along the way. Claimant says she struggled down to first aid where Mrs. Bennett took her blood pressure and eventually sent her home.

Also in evidence before the examiner and the trial court was the testimony of Dr. Crawford, Dr. Jarrott, Dr. Moe, Mrs. Martha Bennett, and Mr. Carl Carlton.

Dr. Crawford testified he first examined claimant on August 25, 1971. He X-rayed all parts of her body she complained were hurting. At that time he advised heat treatments and prescribed a pain killer. Dr. Crawford saw claimant a dozen times. He testified that on all occasions she walked in a perfectly normal manner. His examination did not disclose any bruises or discoloration with respect to any of the areas that she complained of, and at no time was the lower left leg swollen twice its noimal size. In fact his examinations, including the X-rays, revealed no pathological defect in any of the joints she complained of. The most definitive testimony the doctor made on the issues of whether claimant had, in his opinion, been injured on August 25 is contained in the following questions and answers.

“Q. [Appellee’s counsel] . . . Can you say, Doctor, with a reasonable degree of medical certainty that the injuries of which Mrs. Rund complained and for which you treated her were connected with the injury that she had reported to you at Cessna Aircraft?
“A. Right.
# * * * *
“Q. (By Mr. Forker) Okay. And what you are saying then, Doctor, is knowing what she reported to you as to the nature of the injuries she received, and what you observed in the way of complaints and from the X-rays taken, would lead you to believe that the complaints derived from the injury at Cessna Aircraft Company, is that correct?
"A. Yes.
e » » tt *
“Q. [Appellant’s counsel] Now, Doctor, Mr. Forker has asked you a carefully worded question as to whether or not you had an opinion as to whether [816]*816or not she hurt herself at work, and I just want to ask you the basis of your belief that she hurt herself at work is what she told you; is that not correct?
“A. That is correct.
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518 P.2d 518, 213 Kan. 812, 1974 Kan. LEXIS 447, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rund-v-cessna-aircraft-co-kan-1974.