Sapulpa Refining Co. v. Boggs

1930 OK 205, 291 P. 25, 143 Okla. 84, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 555
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedApril 29, 1930
Docket20978
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1930 OK 205 (Sapulpa Refining Co. v. Boggs) 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
Sapulpa Refining Co. v. Boggs, 1930 OK 205, 291 P. 25, 143 Okla. 84, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 555 (Okla. 1930).

Opinion

REID, C.

The claimant, Claude Y. Boggs, was an employee of the Sapulpa Refining Company, a corporation, and, on December 19, 1925, while he was engaged in painting an oil tank for his employer, he fell from a scaffold on which he was working and sustained the injuries for which he sought compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Law of this state. In May, 1925, the State Industrial Commission, by an order, directed that compensation be paid him, and this continued until November 18, 1926, when payment was discontinued. The insurance carrier, United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, and the employer, on November 29, 1926, filed a motion to have such discontinuance of compensation approved' by the Industrial Commission. The motion was heard by the Commission in April and May, 1927, and the discontinuance of compensation was approved as of November 18, 1926, by an order of the Commission entered on August 3, 1927; the Commission finding that on the date the payments ceased, the claimant had recovered from the injuries received in the accident. On December 5, 1927, claimant filed his petition to reopen the cause, alleging a change in his physical condition after August 3, 1927, and that he had become totally disabled, and describing his condition. This petition was heard by the Commission, and on March 22, 1928, an order was made denying claimant’s petition and refusing to reopen the case; whereupon claimant brought proceedings in this court to review that order of the Commission. Upon final consideration of the cause by this court, by an opinion of the court in the case styled as Boggs v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, 139 Okla. 155, 281 Pac. 226, the cause was reversed, with directions to the Industrial Commission to reverse its order denying compensation to claimant “and to hear such further testimony as either party may desire to offer on the issue of a changed condition, and take such further action as may be consistent with the views herein expressed.”

Pursuant to the foregoing decision, the State Industrial Commission, on the 18th and 19th days of November, 1929, with all interested parties present and represented by counsel, proceeded to take further testimony in the matter. On November 26, 1929, the Commission made an order finding that claimant had suffered a change in his physical condition after August 3, 1927, which had resulted in permanent total disability, and ordered that compensation be paid as of that date; and, further, that respondent pay claimant $57 as costs, incurred by claimant in his former appeal to this court, and in taking certain depositions. The insurance carrier and the employer brought this proceeding to review the foregoing order.

We think there are really only two questions presented by the petition to review: The first question is whether or not there is any evidence reasonably tending to support the finding and order of the Industrial Commission that the claimant suffered a change in his condition after August 3, 1927, that he had become permanently and totally disabled, and directing payment of compensation accordingly, in order to determine this question, it is necessary to look to the opinion of this court in the former review of this matter. The court, after reviewing the evidence, stated the substance of its holding there made on the legal effect of the evidence on the questions tried by the Commission in the body of the opinion as f<ollowíS¡:

“When a claimant has established a prima facie case and shown conclusively that on and prior to a given date he was in good health, and that on that date he sustained a very serious injury as the direct and proximate result of an accident, and that the nature of his injury is such as is likely to result in ossification of the 'vertebrae, and that thereafter the vertebrae does become ossified, and there is no evidence offered that such ossification was caused or brought about by any other injury or disease, or that the claimant had suffered any other injury, or was afflicted with any disease that was likely to result in ossification of the vertebrae. then, under such circumstances, neither the Commission nor this court is authorized to enter the field of speculation or conjecture, and hold that such injury was induced and brought about from some other cause, as the only natural and reasonable conclusion to be reached is that where a change in condition is established by competent evidence, as was done in this case, such change resulted from the injury, because there is no. other source to which it is traceable, and under the undisputed testimony it is traceable to the injury.”

We are unable to escape the conclusion that the foregoing decision, when considered *86 in full, determines the question presented here.

In tlie syllabus of tbe ease of Insurance Co. of N. A. v. Cochran, 59 Okla. 200, 159 Pac. 247, it was said:

“Where questions of law upon a state of facts have 'been settled upon a former appeal, and are based, in substance, upon the same evidence when again presented, the decision on the former appeal is the law of the case and binding upon this court.’’

The decisions by this court sustaining this general doctrine will be found cited in our recent opinion in the case of Kelly v. Okmulgee Gas Co., 128 Okla. 237, 262 Pac. 649. There will also be found the eases in which the court saw proper to reverse its former holdings; but for reasons not present in this case.

The Supreme Court of Arkansas, in the case of Maryland Casualty Co. v. Maloney, 178 S. W. 387, L. R. A. 1916A, 519, said in the syllabus:

“A ruling on appeal that the evidence was sufficient to warrant a recovery is binding on a second appeal upon substantially the same evidence.”

The further amplification of the rule is made in 2 R. C. L. 227, wherein it is said:

“The general rule as to the law of the case applies with regard to questions as to the sufficiency of the evidence to prove a fact in issue, and when the case comes up for review a second time and the evidence is substantially the same, the former decision is conclusive”

—citing the case of Westfall v. Waite, 165 Ind. 353, 73 N. E. 1089, 6 Ann. Cas. 788, and note.

The courts, in deciding the precise question here presented, used in the syllabi of the opinions the following language in the respective cases, to wit:

“Where court of errors and appeals reversed a judgment for defendant based on a directed verdict, and held that the issues were entirely of fact and presented jury questions, a verdict for plaintiff on a subsequent trial cannot be reversed, where evidence for plaintiff is substantially the same as that upon the former trial.” Brounworth v. Borough of Verona (N. J.) 115 Atl. 353.
“Where, on former appeal from nonsuit at close of plaintiff’s evidence, court 'held that ease should have been submitted to jury,'on a second trial, where plaintiff’s evidence was substantially the same as on the first trial, the case should have been submitted; to the jury, no matter what the' evidence for defendant was.” Clark v. Sweaney (N. C.) 97 S. E. 474.

On the trial of the case of Kenyon v. Illinois Central R. Co., 173 Iowa, 484, 155 N. W. 810, the court directed a verdict for the defendant at the close of plaintiff’s testimony.

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

Related

Furst v. Lucas
1936 OK 544 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1936)
Hollins v. Hollins
1932 OK 773 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1932)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1930 OK 205, 291 P. 25, 143 Okla. 84, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 555, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sapulpa-refining-co-v-boggs-okla-1930.