Skelly Oil Company v. State Industrial Commission

1956 OK 232, 301 P.2d 236, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 555
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJuly 17, 1956
DocketNo. 37234
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1956 OK 232 (Skelly Oil Company v. State Industrial Commission) 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 Company v. State Industrial Commission, 1956 OK 232, 301 P.2d 236, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 555 (Okla. 1956).

Opinion

HUNT, Justice.

On the 17th day of March, 1954, Earl H. Sumner, respondent herein, filed his claim for compensation against Skelly Oil Company, referred to as petitioner herein, in which he states that on December 14, 1953, while in the employ of Skelly Oil Company he sustained an accidental injury consisting of an injury to his back. The injury occurred while he was engaged in lifting a heavy kitchen range; that as a result of such injury he sustained some permanent disability to his person.

The trial commissioner found that on December 14, 1953, respondent, while in the employ of petitioner, sustained an accidental injury consisting of an injury to his back; that as a result of such injury he was temporarily totally disabled from April 15, 1954 to March 31, 1955, when temporary total disability ceased, for which he is entitled to compensation for 50 weeks at $28 per week, or a total sum of $1,400, and further found that respondent as a result of such injury sustained a 25 per cent permanent partial disability to his body as a whole for which he is entitled to compensation in the sum of $3,500, and upon such findings entered an award in favor of respondent, which was sustained on appeal to the Commission en banc.

Petitioner brings the case here to review the award. Its first contention is:

“The Commission’s finding and its award based thereon that claimant’s disability was the result of the injury of December 14, 1953, is not sustained by the record for the reason that the medical testimony relied upon to support such finding was based upon an incomplete and materially inaccurate history that was contrary to the established fact.”

Respondent in his own behalf in substance testified: On December 14, 1953 he sustained an accidental injury while in the employ of Skelly Oil Company consisting of an injury to his back; that the injury occurred in the manner stated in his claim. He was first employed by petitioner in [238]*238May, 1949. He was employed as a station service man. His work consisted of installing tanks. He piped them and installed and adjusted them; that on February 1, 1951, while in the employ of petitioner he sustained an accidental injury consisting of an injury to his back. He strained his back while assisting another employee in loading a heavy tank on a trailer. While he was engaged in lifting the tank on the trailer he felt a severe pain in his back and down his leg. The next day he informed petitioner’s foreman of said injury and that the foreman sent him to a doctor for treatment. The doctor treated him for twelve days. He was improved some by the treatments. He was not, however, able to return to work for about 30 days thereafter. He returned to work on March 19, 1951, and continued to work until December 14, 1953. He further testified he did not think that he had completely recovered from his 1951 injury but he recovered sufficiently to do ordinary, work. He, however, on occasion felt some pain in his back but the pain was not so frequent and severe as to prevent him doing the work he was assigned to do. He continued to work from March 18, 1951, to December 14, 1953, when he sustained his present injury. Respondent, as to this injury, testified that he injured his back while engaged in loading a heavy kitchen range on a pickup truck. The range weighed-about three hundred pounds. He was assisted by another employee in loading the range. Each lifted one end of the range. Respondent, at the time he sustained his injury was .lifting a weight of about one hundred and fifty pounds. He then drove the truck to the place of unloading but was unable to assist in unloading because of the injury and pain in his back. The next day after he sustained said injury he notified his foreman of the injury and was directed by the foreman to go to Dr. O for treatment. The doctor treated him for several days. The treatment consisted of heat treatment and some medicine was given him to ease the pain, and the doctor directed him to wear a brace on his back. He then returned to work but was given lighter work. His condition, however, grew worse. He suffered more pain in his bade, and also suffered pain in his leg. He, however, kept on working until March, 1954. Since that time he has been unable to do any work. He thereafter requested his employer to furnish him further medical treatment which was refused on the ground that his ■ condition was not caused by injury but was due solely to a congenital deformity of his back.

Respondent thereafter, of his own volition, was examined and treated by various doctors, among whom was Dr. S, who operated to relieve the pain in his back. He improved some as a result of the operation, but he is still unable to do any work. Dr. S testified that he first saw and examined respondent on the 15th day of July, 1954; that respondent was directed to him by Dr. G of Tulsa when he was a patient in a hospital at Tulsa following a milogram which had shown a defect in the thoracic region of the spine. The patient was referred to him for surgical removal of what was felt to be a- disc or a cyst in the thoracic spine. He obtained a history of respondent that he been working for an oil company in February or March of 1951 and had lifted a heavy tank, and at that time he had felt a severe pain in his back but that the pain did not radiate down his , leg, but he kept on working from April, 1951 until December, 1953 without material difficulty. In December, 1953 he lifted a kitchen range; while loading the range, and while so doing felt a severe pain in his back, left hip and right leg. He tried thereafter to work but was unable to do so. He examined and treated respondent but he did not respond. He thereafter discussed respondent’s condition with Dr. G after respondent was admitted to the hospital. The doctor further testified:

“The patient was taken to surgery, and in the lower thoracic region of the spine we exposed five spinus processes, T-10, T-ll, T-12, and the upper two lumbar. These were removed, on both sides, as well as the laminae, or super structure over the posterior part of the [239]*239spinal cord and the extra dural spaces outside of the spine were explored carefully from the ninth thoracic down to the third lumbar. No evidence of disc was found and no evidence of tumor. The dura or sheath covering the spine was then opened and immediately beneath the dura or covering of the spine, say at the level of the twelfth thoracic nerve rood there was found to he a cystic tumor on the right side extending downward for a distance of four centimeters and upward for a distance of three centimeters. The wall of the cyst was opened and a large portion of the cyst .wall removed. A small portion was left postero-laterally due to the fact that a large artery was present in the subarachnoid space at this level and we did not want to impair the blood supply to this portion of the spinal cord.”

The doctor testified that after the operation respondent made some improvement, but has not fully recovered, and further testified that respondent would have a minimum of 25 per cent permanent partial disability to the body as a whole and assuming the history obtained to be correct, in his opinion, such disability is due to the injury sustained on December 14, 1953, rather than to the injury sustained in 1951. This is the only medical evidence offered by either party as to the cause and extent of respondent’s disability.

It is the contention of petitioner that the opinion of Dr.

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Related

Skelly Oil Company v. Sumner
1959 OK 242 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1959)

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Bluebook (online)
1956 OK 232, 301 P.2d 236, 1956 Okla. LEXIS 555, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/skelly-oil-company-v-state-industrial-commission-okla-1956.