Sinclair Refining Company v. Duncan

1956 OK 160, 297 P.2d 563, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 474
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 15, 1956
Docket36832
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1956 OK 160 (Sinclair Refining Company v. Duncan) 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
Sinclair Refining Company v. Duncan, 1956 OK 160, 297 P.2d 563, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 474 (Okla. 1956).

Opinion

CORN, Justice.

On February 1, 1946, Theodore. J.. Duncan, referred to as respondent herein, filed a claim for compensation against Sinclair Refining Company, own risk carrier, referred to as. petitioner herein,-in which he states that on the 26th day of December, 1945, while in the employ of petitioner he sustained an accidental injury consisting of an injury to his back resulting in some permanent disability to his person. The injury occurred while he was engaged in unloading heavy .sacks of clay from a trailer, when a sack weighing about 150 pounds, fell from the trailer and struck him on the back.

Under order of the Commission entered on the 22nd day of October, 1946, respondent was awarded temporary compensation from January 30, 1946 to October 24, 1946, or 38 weeks at $21.00 per week, amounting to the sum of $798, and ordered and directed petitioner to continue such payments until temporary total disability had ceased.

Petitioner immediately paid the sum found due, $798, and continued temporary total compensation payments until July 16, 1947. Total temporary. compensation paid respondent amounted to $1,638.

On the 14th day of April, 1948, the Commission awarded respondent compensation for permanent partial disability in the sum of $3675, based on 35 percent permanent partial disability to his body as a whole. This award has been fully paid and satisfied.

On September 9, 1952, respondent filed a: motion to re-open and Tor additional compensation because of change of condition for the worse, since the prior award was entered.

This motion came on to be heard before a trial commissioner, and on January 24, 1955 he found:

“That claimant has had a change of condition for the worse since this Commission’s order of April 12, 1948, and as a result of his change of condition for the worse, claimant now is 50 percent permanently partially disabled, or an increase of 15 percent permanent partial disability to his body as a whole, for which he is entitled to recover from respondent 75 weeks additional compensation at the rate of $21.00 per week, or. $1575.00.”

And upon such finding entered an award accordingly which was sustained on appeal to the Commission efi banc,

*565 Petitioner brings the case here to review this award and contends that there is no competent evidence tending to establish that respondent sustained a change of condition for the worse since the , prior award was made, and the Commission was therefore without jurisdiction to enter an award for additional compensation.

At the original hearing respondent testified that on the 26th day of December, 1945, while in the employ of petitioner he sustained an accidental injury to his back, and that such injury was caused in the manner stated in his claim. He continued working for petitioner for about eleven days after which time he discontinued his work because of pain and injury to his back; that he has been unable to do ordinary manual labor since that time. At the hearing on change of condition.he likewise so testified, and further testified that he is still unable to work, but that he suffers more pain in his back, hip and legs than he did at the time the original award.was entered.

Dr. W. at the original hearing to determine the extent of disability sustained by respondent as a result of his 1945 injury, testified that he first saw respondent shortly after he sustained his injury, and made a report of his findings in which he stated that as a result of his accident respondent sustained an injury to his back and is temporarily totally disabled to perform ordinary manual labor, and is entitled to further medicál treatment. He continued to treat respondent at various times for about one year. He was treating him for a back injury. He took x-rays of his back which showed negative and showed no injury to his back. He further testified: '

“There was some subsequent findings, which I didn’t discover myself, but which were discovered by Doctor Lowe on some x-rays taken higher up in the thoracic area. On findings of one of these places, it app'ears suspicious, very suspicious of a disc injury between the fifth and sixth thoracic vertebrae or the fourth and fifth or the fifth and sixth. I base that on the fact that in this par-Iticular x4ray made .by Dr. Lowe, and. which I.had an occasion to examine,' there was some narrowing of the inter-vertebral space which is always suspicious of a disc injury. That is the only finding which I have been able to find or see relative to disc injury.”

The doctor further testified that he was of’the opinion that respondent, as a result of his injury occurring in December, 1945, had sustained an injured disc. The x-ray showed no such injury but he based his conclusion as to his disability on' the complaints made by him. He-however further testified, after examination of the x-ray made by Dr. L., that in his opinion respondent had sustained an injured disc and that he is now permanently totally disabled from doing ordinary manual labor.

Dr. L., in his testimony, corroborated the evidence of Dr. W. and also expressed the opinion that respondent, as a result of his 1945 injury, was permanently -totally disabled. • Several other physicians who also testified at the original hearing stated that they examined respondent numerous1 times, but had been unable to discover the,cause of his difficulty; that from ■ the examinations made-including x-ray examination it would appear that he had sustained no disability as a result of his injury but his complaints, if .genuine, would indicate that he had sustained an injury-and was unable to do ordinary manual labor. - - There is evidently something wrong with respondent, but they haye been unable to discover the cause. ■

- This in substance constitutes the evidence offered at the original hearing upon which the Commission based its award, awarding respondent compensation onythe basis of 35 percent permanent partial disability to his body as a whole.

Only two doctors testified at the hearing on change of condition. Dr. S. testified that he first saw and examined respondent on April 4, 1950." He obtained a history of the case from respondent and examined him on different occasions including x-ray examination, ánd after testifying in detail .as to thé condition found to exist, stated: in his opinion respondent had a constitutional inadequate-personality and tends to. aggravate his complaints and that ás a result of his 1-945 -injury respondent is suffering from a severe- traumatic neurosis; that he is now *566 unable to do ordinary manual labor and is permanently totally disabled, but that a portion of such disability is due to his constitutional inadequacy; that as a result of his traumatic neurosis he has a disability of from 50 to 70 percent, and that the balance of his disability is due to constitutional inadequacy not related to the injury. The doctor was not qualified, and did not attempt to testify as to any change of condition since the prior award was entered, nor was he qualified to or did he attempt to testify as to what respondent’s disability was in 1948 when the original award was entered.

Dr.

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1956 OK 160, 297 P.2d 563, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 474, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/sinclair-refining-company-v-duncan-okla-1956.