Smith v. State

9 Ill. Ct. Cl. 400, 1937 Ill. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 112
CourtCourt of Claims of Illinois
DecidedMarch 9, 1937
DocketNo. 2359
StatusPublished

This text of 9 Ill. Ct. Cl. 400 (Smith v. State) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Claims of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. State, 9 Ill. Ct. Cl. 400, 1937 Ill. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 112 (Ill. Super. Ct. 1937).

Opinion

Me. Justice Linscott

delivered the opinion of the court:

This is a claim filed under the Workmen’s Compensation Act and alleges that the claimant, while an employee of the State, under the Division of Highways, was injured on September 19, 1933; that at the time of the injury he was pushing a cement cart, used in road repairs, about three miles southeast of Charleston, Illinois; that the injury was caused by one J. W. Hardway, not an employee of the State, running a truck against the claimant.

The claimant received a fracture of the fifth sacral vertebra, and a fracture of the lower ramus of the pelvis.

It appears from the file that Hardway, at the time of the injury to claimant, was operating his own truck and was insolvent. Claimant was struck at the lower end of the spine and undoubtedly received a severe injury, and he claims that he has not been able to engage in any occupation since the injury.

It is stipulated that all parties are under the Act and that the injury arose out of, and in the course of claimant’s employment.

At the time of claimant’s injury, he was thirty-six years of age, and resided with his wife and four children, under the age of sixteen years. Since that time two more children have been born, and the question for this court to determine is the extent of the injuries and the amount that claimant should receive.

It appears that the State has paid medical expenses in the amount of $115.00, of a bill of $143.50, to the attending physician, leaving a balance unpaid in the sum of $28.50, which is due to the estate of Dr. C. H. Harwood, Dr. Harwood having died since claimant’s injury.

At the time of the injury, claimant was earning $12.00 per week, and compensation has been paid to April 1, 1934, in the amount of $159.00.

Claimant contends that prior to the injury he was in good health and had not had any illness of any nature, and as the result of the injury, he was confined to his bed about six weeks, and to his home for several months, and always has an ache across his back, and that the ache continues in the back of his head; that he has a limp in the right leg, but that does not pain him; that he has endeavored to work and has worked some in his garden and washing. The record does not state what was meant by the word “washing”, but we assume it means washing dishes and clothes. He further testified that when he works to amount to anything, he has an ache that comes up his back on the left side into the back of his head and makes him very sick; that he can lie down an hour or so and he will get relief; that he then will work more and lie down a while, and so on. He states that since the injury, he has pulled brush and chopped saplings, but the ache comes up his back and into his head; .that when be laid down for an hour or half an hour or two hours that the ache would leave. In more recent testimony, he says that he does not take any medicine, and says that he has to go in a half stooped position “in order to hold the ache down”. He testified that last fall he cut some broom corn when he was able, and that he had the same ache, and would have to lie down in the broom corn field for an hour or so; that then he could get up and continue to work and then was required to lie down an hour again; that since the accident, he has not been able to do any continuous physical labor; that during the last year or two, he has earned fifteen or twenty dollars from labor.

Claimant further testified that since Dr. Harwood’s death, he has employed Dr. Alexander. He further testified that his head hurt him the same as his back; that he had a pain in the back of his head. Claimant testified that he did not get sick in the stomach: “I just get sick, my flesh. When I have an ache in my back from stooping why it makes me sick, just like I was sick td the stomach only it is in my flesh, makes me deathly sick. I have to go lay down. I go and lay down and lay there until it wears off, probably an hour or half hour.” He was then asked: “How many times have you had to rest during the week from attempting to perform labor since the last hearing to the best of your remembrance?” To that he did answer: “I would say three times a week, because I wash twice.” He further testified that he helped with the housework and that the weakness above referred to would last probably an hour, but when he would lie down, it would wear off, but he said “That pain in the back that always stays there.” He further testified that when he got up and moved around the pain would come back again.

Claimant further testified that when he worked he got nervous; that he couldn’t sleep nights; that he had nervous spells; that when he would go to bed he couldn’t lie there; that he had to get up and move around; that he had never been able to sleep on his back or left side; that he could sleep on his right side, and always has, meaning since the accident.

This testimony was taken about two years or a little more after the accident.

On cross examination claimant testified that he went to his neighbors and pulled weeds out of the strawberry gardens, but was not paid by the day. He received whatever compensation the owner of the strawberry patch saw fit to pay him.

Claimant further testified that his left leg was not affected, and neither was his arms nor shoulders; that he had a limp caused by a little stiffness in the knee.

Dr. Swickard testified that he was engaged in the general practice of medicine and surgery in Charleston, Illinois, and had been so engaged for about twenty years. He testified that he had been in court and heard all of Smith’s testimony, and several hypothetical questions were put to the doctor, based upon that testimony. He further testified that he had examined the claimant a day prior for the purpose of qualifying himself to testify; that there is no fixation of the knee joint, but whenever claimant walks rapidly he stiffens his knee and it appears that there may be some tilting of the pelvis as he walks, but he could not explain why it was that way; that he examined the X-ray pictures taken of the claimant’s hips, and the pictures disclose a fracture across the fifth sacral vertebra, and a fracture of the right lower ramus of the pubis; that there was a large amount of callus on the right side of the fracture, and that the fracture of the sacrum had healed; that he palpated over the area which had been painful at the previous examination and that he could only elicit pain over the lower part of the back; that the region around the pubis was non-painful at this examination; that he had the claimant do some bending and that he could bend fairly well, and in the opinion of the doctor, the twisting of the pelvis when he bends, was the result of the crushing injury to his pelvis; that all other examinations of the heart and lungs were negative. This doctor also testified that there was no nerve running directly from the lower part of the spine up to the head; that the feeling claimant had in the back of his head was because of the pain lower down in the back going into the nervous center up to the base of the brain, and that the claimant only thought that the pain went through the back hut that was impossible, but that would be true of any individual who had an injury such as the claimant had.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 Ill. Ct. Cl. 400, 1937 Ill. Ct. Cl. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-state-ilclaimsct-1937.