Smith v. Morristown Poultry Co.

280 S.W.2d 929, 198 Tenn. 412, 2 McCanless 412, 1955 Tenn. LEXIS 390
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJune 10, 1955
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 280 S.W.2d 929 (Smith v. Morristown Poultry Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Morristown Poultry Co., 280 S.W.2d 929, 198 Tenn. 412, 2 McCanless 412, 1955 Tenn. LEXIS 390 (Tenn. 1955).

Opinion

Mr. Special Justice Clement

delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a Workmen’s Compensation case. The Trial Judge found that petitioner was injured in the course of her employment; that she suffered certain temporary total disability, and certain permanent partial disability on account of injuries to her eye, ear, nose and head, and that her ability to see in her right eye was permanently reduced by fifty percent, and that by reason of said injuries her earning capacity is permanently reduced by fifty percent. The Court allowed petitioner certain medical expense and gave the employer and his insurance [414]*414carrier a credit of $144 for overpayments on temporary total disability, and further decreed that the defendants pay petitioner the minimum payment as provided by statute, of $12 per week for 150 weeks, on account of the permanent partial disability.

From this judgment the defendants have appealed and assigned the following errors: (1) The Court erred in disregarding the testimony of Dr. Montgomery, eye-specialist, and in finding that petitioner had a 50'% disability to her eye and a 50% reduction in earning capacity as a result that there was no material evidence to support the finding. (2) The Court erred in finding that petitioner had a 50% permanent reduction in earning capacity as a result of the accident, the true test being disability of the non-scheduled member apportioned to the body as a whole.

Petitioner is a woman 48 years of age, uneducated, and had been working for the defendants’ company for several years. Her duties were picking, dressing, and processing chickens. She had engaged in this line of work for 32 years, or since she was 16 years of age.

On the morning of January 1, 1954, she was struck on the forehead, over the right eye, by a shackle, (a metal device on which chickens are placed). While the record does not go into detail as to exactly how the injury occurred, the petitioner states that “the shackle came back and hit me on the head. ’ ’

There is no insistence that the injury did not rise out of and in the course of her employment.

She was first sent to a local doctor, one Doctor Chambers, an Optometrist. He treated her for several days and she was then sent to Doctor Kinser, a medical doctor and surgeon. Her face and eye were swollen and Doctor Kinser treated the petitioner about six weeks.

[415]*415Petitioner was then sent to Doctor Montgomery, at Knoxville. Doctor Montgomery is a specialist in the treating of eye, ear and nose ailments.

Petitioner insists that she has suffered pain since the injury to her eyes, ears and head. She admits that after she was released by the doctor she obtained employment from the Burnett Produce Company, doing practically the same type of work that she did before the injury, at the same rate of pay, but she insists that her work is painful; that her eye fills with water; that it keeps her busy wiping her eye, and that the work is much more of a strain on her than before the injury, and that since the injury she is unable to read. She further states that she cannot hear out of her right ear as well as she could before the injury.

Doctor Kinser, petitioner’s witness, testified that he first saw the petitioner on January 5,1954; that she had an extreme swelling in her right eye and a blockage of the lacrimal gland and duct. That the patient did not respond as fast as he had hoped, and after six weeks of treatment he referred her to a specialist, Doctor John Montgomery in Knoxville.

This witness further testified that two days prior to the trial, which was October 22,1954, he examined petitioner and found that she had undergone an operation on the duct which had satisfactorily partially healed her eye, but she still had some swelling and tenderness. He described the duct as a drainage pipe to the eye and the lacrimal gland as the producer of tears which are necessary to keep the eyeball from drying out.

He further described the duct as draining into the nose which serves to drain off any minute particles of infection or foreign matter.

[416]*416He further testified that an abscess had formed, blocking off the duct and that an operation was necessary and was performed by Doctor Montgomery. Briefly, the operation was described as shortening the duct and placed the drainage into her nose at a different place, in other words it was necessary to make another opening into the nasal enclosure.

Without going further into the technical description of the operation by Doctor Kinser, he finally was asked this question :

“Q. Dr. Kinser, basing your answer on your experience as a practicing physician, and on your examination and treatments of Mrs. Smith, the petitioner, do you have and can you state a professional opinion with reference to whether or not she is now suffering from any permanent disability as a result of the blow to her head or an infection to her eye?
A. In my opinion she has a permanent disability.
“Q. In your opinion, assuming that the only occupation that she knows is that of a poultry dresser, does this permanent disability affect her ability to engage in any gainful occupation? A. In my opinion, it does.
“Q. To what extent? A. In my opinion she is 50% disabled.”

The defendant’s witness, Doctor John L. Montgomery, a specialist in eye, ear, nose and throat, testified that he first saw the petitioner on February 22, 1954. That he incised the lacrimal sac and packed it in order to keep the wound open, and that this procedure was continued with frequent instillations of penicillin and irrigation until May 9th, at which time he decided that no further benefit could be had by continuing the local therapy. That on that date he performed an operation which he described [417]*417as, “anastomosing the lacrimal ctuct to the nasal mucous membrane,” and that she was discharged from the hospital on May 15th. That he subsequently saw petitioner on May 18th, 22nd, 28th, June 11th, and July 6th and 9th. That on July 11th he advised the petitioner that she might return to work and that was the last time he saw her, and that there was every indication that the operation was successful.

He also testified:

“Q. Could this condition which you described affect the sight in the right eye? A. Well now, let’s put it this way, if this tear sac or duct does not function properly there can he an accumulation of tears in the eye with resulting blurring of vision being a great difficulty in working. As a matter of fact it would be impossible to do some types of work.
“Q. In this particular case was there any disability to the eye? A. There was definitely until this operation procedure was accomplished.
‘ ‘ Q. And after the operation was there any disability? A. I do not feel that there is at the present time.
“Q. Could there be any disability? A. Really I haven’t seen her since July 9th. Taking that into consideration * * *.
“Q. Could there he any permanent disability to the nose as a result of this situation? A. Yes, Yes. You have an opening into the nose, hut I do not see that it could cause any permanent disability. We will see that there is a permanent change there in the way that those tears go into the nose.”

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

Related

W. S. Dickey Manufacturing Co. v. Moore
347 S.W.2d 493 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1961)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
280 S.W.2d 929, 198 Tenn. 412, 2 McCanless 412, 1955 Tenn. LEXIS 390, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-morristown-poultry-co-tenn-1955.