Schexnaydre v. Wallace Industrial Contractors

227 So. 2d 756, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5967
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 3, 1969
DocketNo. 3569
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 227 So. 2d 756 (Schexnaydre v. Wallace Industrial Contractors) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Schexnaydre v. Wallace Industrial Contractors, 227 So. 2d 756, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5967 (La. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

DOMENGEAUX, Judge.

This appeal concerns itself with a claim under our Workmen’s Compensation Law wherein plaintiff, Benoit Schexnaydre, seeks weekly benefits for total and permanent disability, penalties and attorney’s fees. Plaintiff was injured on March 25, 1965 at Gramercy, Louisiana, while in the course and scope of his employment with defendant, Wallace Industrial Contractors, as a pipe fitter-welder when he was struck by a rolling segment of pipe and thrown forward, causing certain injuries including a laceration on the left forehead. His complaints initially were pains in the head, neck, left arm and left wrist.

Plaintiff’s earnings were such at the time of the aforementioned accident as to place him in the $35.00 per week category of compensation payments.

He was paid weekly benefits from March 25, 1965 through May 6, 1965 by defendant, Trinity Universal Insurance Company, the compensation insurer of the employer, and, additionally, all medical bills resulting from the accident which were presented to defendant insurer were paid as of the latter date.

[758]*758Plaintiffs returned to work in his former occupation on a full time basis with another employer on June 1, 1965 and worked continuously as such for various employers through and including the time of trial except for a few specified intervals when he received a cut on the lip, had dental trouble, and was laid off, all incidences, of course, being disassociated with the accident which we are concerned with in this case.

The trial of plaintiff’s .case was commenced on October 21, 1965 and inasmuch as same was not completed, it was continued to November 28, 1965 at which time it was concluded.

The trial judge, in his succinct, well-reasoned judgment, awarded plaintiff compensation at the rate of $35.00 per week from May 6, 1965 (the date when defendant-insurer terminated compensation payments) to June 1, 1965 with the usual interest provisions, all medical expenses incurred and for all costs including the assessment of expert medical fees. He found no evidence to support plaintiff’s contention that the insurer acted unreasonably, capriciously or arbitrarily and consequently denied penalties and attorney’s fees.

Plaintiff has appealed to this court specifying that the lower court erred in failing to award him benefits for total permanent or partial permanent disability and further in not finding that the defendant acted arbitrarily and capriciously in terminating compensation and failing to pay certain medicals and denying penalties and attorney’s fees.

Defendants answered the appeal, agreeing with the trial court, except insofar as it awarded additional compensation to plaintiff from May 6, 1965 to June 1, 1965, together with additional medical expenses, costs and expert fees.

After the initial recovery period following the accident, during which time plaintiff suffered generalized pains and experienced disability, he continued to complain of headaches which he states have persisted through the aforementioned trial dates and which he alleges were the result of the accident of March 25, 1965. He suggests that the trial court erred in not finding a conflict in the testimony of the medical experts and should have considered the lay testimony.

We find that the analysis of the trial judge concerning plaintiff’s injuries and the medical conclusions reached from the evidence are correctly stated and we quote from his reasons, as follows:

“The record shows that plaintiff sustained a blow and a cut to the left side of his forehead during the course and scope of his employment with Wallace Industrial Contractors on March 25, 1965. Following emergency treatment at the St. James Parish Hospital in Lutcher, Louisiana, he was referred to Dr. Claude Craig-head, surgeon, of New Orleans. He had a cut about one and one-half inches long through the skin of the forehead. Dr. Craighead saw plaintiff on the same day of the accident. He administered diathermy and traction to plaintiff’s neck on or about April 19, 1965, prescribed medication for complaints of dizziness. On March 25, 1965, he found patient’s condition ‘good’, ‘moderately clear’ and did not recall haziness or amensia. He resorted to traction for plaintiff’s neck about eight (8) times for fifteen (15) minutes each, the last treatment being April 26, 1965. On May 6 plaintiff still complained but refused neurological follow-up. No objective symptoms could be detected on that date or on May 25. He further testified plaintiff’s complaints were purely subjective and thus difficult to evaluate. He observed that Mr. Schexnaydre’s condition improved progressively. The medical report of Dr. Irving Redler, orthopedic surgeon, ruled out evidence of residual disability. Dr. Richard Levy, neuro-surgeon, testified plaintiff could have sustained a mild concussion. He examined plaintiff six months following the accident and could not relate complaints of headaches to [759]*759a mild concussion or find remaining disability. The testimony of neither Dr. Unkauf nor Dr. Fauble add much to the medical picture.
“Mr. Schexnaydre returned to his usual occupation by June 1, 1965. Despite his alleged complaints that he still experienced pain after resuming his usual work, the medical evidence finds no foundation for such complaints. Plaintiff has failed to establish with sufficient degree of probability that he has been left with residuals from the accident. Joseph v. Aetna Ins. Co., [La.App.] 183 So.2d 762; Diggs v. The Wertz Company et al, [La. App.] 176 So.2d 700.”

We are convinced from an exhaustive review of the medical testimony that the trial judge was correct in finding that no conflict exists therein. To supplement and bolster the trial judge’s conclusions, we find that none of the medics could detect objective symptoms which might produce the pain of which plaintiff complained. Dr. Levy testified that the headaches of which plaintiff complained could not have lasted more than three months from the time of the injury. He based this opinion on the results of a complete neurological examination which he conducted on plaintiff on October 24, 1965. His testimony in this regard was uncontra-dicted by that of the other physicians. Dr. Thomas G. Fauble, who examined plaintiff only once, and then on the date of the accident, and who subsequently moved to the State of California, testified via deposition, and stated that the duration of headaches depends to a great extent on the individual involved. He did not have his records before him at the deposition and was testifying from memory. His conclusions were largely based on hypothets not coincident with the facts of this case. His testimony is of little help in evaluating plaintiff’s present complaints. Dr. Craighead, who was plaintiff’s regular physician for at least eleven years and treated him from March 25, 1965 to May 6, 1965, testified that Schexnaydre had no objective symptoms as of May 6, 1965. Dr. Byron M. Unkauf, an orthopedic surgeon testified that he recommended to plaintiff that he continue with the type of work he was doing. Dr. Irving Redler, another orthopedic surgeon, whose medical report was admitted in evidence by stipulation, stated that plaintiff’s complaints could not be explained on an orthopedic basis.

From our reading of the record we are unable to discern the conflict in the medical testimony which plaintiff asserts.

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

Related

Smith v. American Motorist Insurance
255 So. 2d 837 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
227 So. 2d 756, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5967, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/schexnaydre-v-wallace-industrial-contractors-lactapp-1969.