Skelly Oil Company v. Sumner

1959 OK 242, 347 P.2d 219, 1959 Okla. LEXIS 512
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 24, 1959
DocketNo. 38622
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 1959 OK 242 (Skelly Oil Company v. Sumner) 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. Sumner, 1959 OK 242, 347 P.2d 219, 1959 Okla. LEXIS 512 (Okla. 1959).

Opinion

BLACKBIRD, Justice.

In this case it appears that on the 17th day of March, 1954, claimant, Earl H. Sumner filed a claim for compensation against his employer Skelly Oil Company (own risk) stating that on December 14, 1953, while in the employ of Skelly Oil Company, hereinafter referred to as petitioner, he sustained an accidental injury arising out of and in the course of his hazardous employment consisting of an injury to his back; that the injury occurred while he was engaged in lifting a heavy kitchen range, resulting in some permanent disability to his person.

The Commission in that case awarded him compensation for temporary total disability for 50 weeks at $28 per week or the total sum of $1,400, and also awarded him compensation for permanent partial disability in the sum of $3,500 based on a 25 per cent permanent partial disability to his body as a whole. .That award was sustained by this court on appeal. Skelly Oil Co. v. State Industrial Commission, Okl., 301 P.2d 236. This award became final on September 17, 1956, the date upon which the mandate from this court was received by the State Industrial Commission and spread of record.

Thereafter, on September 30, 1957, claimant filed a motion to reopen and for additional compensation because of change in condition for the worse.

Claimant at that hearing after testifying in some detail as to the nature of the injury sustained by him on December 14, 1953, and the result of that injury, further testified that since he obtained that award he had suffered a change in his condition for the worse. He first noticed the change in his condition during the latter part of the summer of 1957, and in February and March following. It got so bad he could not walk or use his right arm. His right leg was numb and he could not feel whether his foot was on the ground or not and' he had severe pain. He went to a doctor two or three times for examination and called Skelly Oil Company and asked to be placed in the hospital, which request was refused; that on July 15, 1954, he was operated by the doctor for the removal of a cyst but that the operation did not materially improve his condition. The doctor performed another operation in October, 1957, for the removal of a disc. While he improved some as a result of that operation and it took away a lot of his pain he still does not have the use of his right arm and leg like he should have and he can’t hold things in his hand. He drops them. He could not do anything but for a few minutes at a time. He tried to take benefits of the State Rehabilitation Service and they offered to do something for him when he was able to take schooling, but due to the inability to use his hand and to nervousness he could not do anything.

Claimant further testified that in 1951, while working for Skelly Oil Company he sustained an injury to his back; that he-matíe no claim for compensation for such injury; that he had sufficiently recovered from such injury to return to work and did thereafter return to work and satisfactorily continue to do the work 'assigned him until he sustained his injury of December 14, 1953.

Dr. S at that hearing in substance testified that in the course of his examination and treatment of claimant he noticed a. change in his condition in 1957, and that he felt that such disability was over and. above the 25 per cent disability previously [221]*221awarded claimant; that claimant had an additional 25 per cent to the body as a whole as a result of the lumbar disc pathology and the necessity of treatment. The doctor operated for a herniated disc and got it all as far as he could tell. The operation was in October, 1957, and subsequent to the award of 1955. The patient had a definite change in the myelographic picture. A second myelogram which was carried out showed a definite defect in the lumbar area which had not been present at the time of the first myelogram. He felt that the present lumbar problem necessitating the removal of the disc was due to his original injury. The original disability of 25 per cent was given to the thoracic spine, the upper spine; and the last operation explored lumbar 2, 3, 4 and 5, at L-4 for a transitional lumbar spine .and the disc between 4 and 5 was taken out. The doctor further testified that he thought the thoracic operation helped claimant to some extent with regard to the pain he was having in the thoracic area. He did not think that it helped him with regard to the low back or leg pain. He further stated that he gave claimant 20 per cent to the thoracic and five per cent to the low back on the basis of his first estimate of 25 per cent disability. The second estimate of 25 per cent disability is related to the low back and to his arm difficulty and ulner numbness. He further testified that due- to his change of condition he estimated claimant’s disability at 20 per cent to the low back and 5 per cent to the. ulner scalenus and claimant'now has a 15 per cent increased disability to the back and five per cent to the scalenus or a total of 35 per cent disability to the body as a whole as the result of his change of condition.

The doctor on cross-examination further testified:

“Doctor, this condition you found on this last operation you say in June, 1957, if you will please explain what you found in that operation there?
“Well, I think probably Mr. Sumner — the majority of Mr. Sumner’s trouble all during this period of four years up to the time of this second operation was due to disk pathology at Lumbar 5. I feel in the early states we missed the boat and made the wrong diagnosis as far as the majority of his complaints were concerned, and I feel that the disk had been present. Now at the time of the operation, the disk had come out more or protruded more than obvious.
It was in 1954 when we did the first myelogram, because the myelogram in 1954 and 1957 were different, arid the myelogram in 1957 showed this large dome-like protruded disk, which was causing pressure on the nerve root going out to the back and right leg.
“Then there was a change of condition as it developed there in 1957?
“The disk protruded more in 1957, than it had in 1954 or 1955.
“What do you attribute the cause of the condition, of this condition that you found in the lumbar that caused the operation ?
“I think that all of his trouble resulted from the injury in 1953. * *

The trial judge at the close of the evidence found:

“That this hearing is based upon a motion to reopen on change of condition for the worse, since the 25% order of the Commission of October 25th, 1955.
“That claimant has sustained a change of condition for the worse and is now 45 per cent permanently partially disabled to the body as a whole, or 20 per cent worse than when said last order was written; 15 per cent increase to the low back and 5 per cent to the scalenus; and that claimant is entitled to additional compensation by reason of such change of condition for the worse in the amount of $2800.00, [222]*222or 100 weeks at $28.00 per week; that $56.00 has accrued and to be paid in a lump sum. That $456.00 over-payment is to be deducted from said sum of $2800.00.”

Upon such findings the trial judge awarded claimant additional compensation because of change of condition for the worse in the sum above mentioned.

Petitioner brings the case here for review.

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Bluebook (online)
1959 OK 242, 347 P.2d 219, 1959 Okla. LEXIS 512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/skelly-oil-company-v-sumner-okla-1959.