Skelly Oil Co. v. Thomas

1931 OK 3, 295 P. 213, 147 Okla. 86, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 723
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 6, 1931
Docket21264
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 1931 OK 3 (Skelly Oil Co. v. Thomas) 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
Skelly Oil Co. v. Thomas, 1931 OK 3, 295 P. 213, 147 Okla. 86, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 723 (Okla. 1931).

Opinion

CULLISON, J.

This is an original proceeding in this court to review an order and award by the State Industrial Commission *87 in favor of the respondent, John W. Thomas, hereinafter called the claimant, and against the petitioner, Skelly Oil Company.

The claimant, while working for petitioner oil company at its Earlsboro, Okla., gasoline plant, was struck on the head in the right occipital region, by a bolt or piece of iron which fell from a scaffold, causing a bruise, but not fracturing claimant’s skull. The injury occurred September 17, 1928.

Petitioner paid claimant compensation from the date of the injury, September 17„ 1928, until November 24, 1928.

On November 7, 1928, cláimant filed with the Industrial Commission a claim for compensation ; the cause was set for hearing, and after several continuances the Commission on May 6, 1929, entered its order wherein it found claimant had received an accidental personal injury on September 17, 1928, arising out of and in the course of his employment with petitioner, and that by reason of said injury claimant was temporarily totally disabled from the date of the injury to November 24, 1928, for which period of disability compensation had theretofore been paid; and further found that;

“The evidence is insufficient to show claimant suffered any disability beyond that period by reason of said accidental injury.”

The order and award of May 6, 1929, was duly mailed to all parties affected thereby on May 6, 1929, and on May 29, 1929, more than 10 days after the rendition of said order and the mailing thereof to. interested parties, claimant filed a petition with the Commission asking for a rehearing (1) on the ground of newly discovered evidence, and (2) on the ground of change in his condition.

The' Commission at a hearing on said petition November 5, 1929, denied claimant’s petition requesting a rehearing on the ground of newly discovered evidence, for the reason the same was not filed within 10 days from the date of said award, in compliance with rule 30 of the Commission. This ruling of the Commission is not questioned on this appeal.

However, the Commission sustained that part of claimant’s petition requesting a rehearing on the ground of change in his condition ; set the cause down for hearing; conducted hearings thereon; and on March 20, 1930, the Commission found that there was a change in claimant’s condition, as alleged, and ordered petitioner to pay claimant the sum of $651.50 as compensation from May 29, 1929, to March 21, 1930, and to continue such payments at the rate of $15.39 pen week until further order of the Commission.

From this order and award of March 20, 1930, .petitioner oil company appeals to this court.

Under the view that we take in this case, the first contention presented by petitioner on appeal is conclusive as to the rights of the parties here under consideration. Petitioner contends:

“The evidence introduced at the second trial of this case, in support of claimant’s contention that his • condition had changed, was not sufficient to justify the Commission in making the award appealed from herein, but, on the other hand, the uncontradicted and uneontroverted. evidence shows affirmatively that claimant’s condition had not been changed.”

The petitioner admits that under section 7296, C. O. S. 1921, as construed by this court, the Industrial Commission may,, under certain conditions, review a prior award; reopen the case and award further compensation upon a showing of change of condition.

Attached to this well-settled rule is the burden placed upon the claimant to establish two essential facts:

(1) That there has in fact been a change of condition since the original award was made; and,

(2) That the changed condition is due to the original injury.

See Industrial Track Construction Co. v. Colthrop, 132 Okla. 77, 269 Pac. 263; Summers v. Bendelari, 128 Okla. 243, 262 Pac. 648.

It is self-evident that a failure to establish the first essential fact (that there has in fact been a change of condition since the original award was made) necessarily precludes any inquiry as to the second essential fact (that the changed condition is due to the original injury).

Petitioner contends further:

“That not only is there an entire absence of evidence showing that claimant’s condition has changed, but that the record affirmatively show® that this condition has not changed since the original order or decision of the Commission, or. since the dates on which the first trial was had.”

Under the rule as announced above, and the issues here presented, we, therefore, must look to the evidence to see if it supports the allegation of such change of condition.

Although there is no specific allegation *88 made by the claimant as to the nature of the alleged change of condition, the premise appears to be that the change is in the nature of a paralysis to the right side of claimant’s body, and that he is suffering from psychoneurosis or hysterical paralysis.

Drs. D. H. Stewart, Fred T. Cronk, A. C. Shuler, and Eugene Rice¿ called as witnesses at the first trial by petitioner, all testified as to examinations made of claimant shortly after the injury — stating that their examinations disclosed claimant had received a blow on the right side of his head; that the blow did not cause a fracture of the skull. On the question of whether or not the blow could possibly cause paralysis to the right side of claimant’s body, these physicians and each of them testified positively that if the blow was sufficient to cause paralysis, the paralysis could not possibly be on the right side of the body. Questioned as to whether there was any exception that a blow on the right side of the head could only cause paralysis on the left side of the body, and not on the right side of the 'body, the doctors responded that there were no exceptions— “it is a. physiological fact.”

The claimant’s own testimony at the first trial, after reciting the facts surrounding the cause of the injury, was that he was unable to continue work; that he was examined by the above-mentioned .physicians, and was taken to the State University Hospital at Oklahoma Oity, where he was treated, and that at that time he was suffering from pain in the head and a drawing sensation in the right arm, right side, right leg, and the entire right side of the body, and that he suffered from dizziness.

The Commission at the date of the first trial had before it the reports of claimant’s own Doctors Long and Long.

In a letter from Drs. Long and Long, written prior to the date of the first hearing and before the Commission when the first order was entered, the following statements concerning the condition of the claimant are made:

“In the case of J. W. Thomas, who was under our care at University Hospital, we wish to say that we are of the opinion that he has a traumatic psychosis, that it, disturbances of his nervous system resulting from the injury to the head. His most important complaint is his inability to properly use the right arm and right leg.

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Related

Amerada Petroleum Corporation v. White
1937 OK 25 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1937)
Atlantic Coast Shipping Co. v. Golubiewski
9 F. Supp. 315 (D. Maryland, 1934)
Skelly Oil Co. v. Skinner
1933 OK 151 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1933)
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1932 OK 762 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1932)
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White Oak Refining Co. v. Whitehead
1931 OK 357 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1931)

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Bluebook (online)
1931 OK 3, 295 P. 213, 147 Okla. 86, 1931 Okla. LEXIS 723, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/skelly-oil-co-v-thomas-okla-1931.