Southern Fuel Co. v. State Industrial Com.

1930 OK 47, 284 P. 35, 141 Okla. 127, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 30
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedJanuary 21, 1930
Docket19687
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1930 OK 47 (Southern Fuel Co. v. State Industrial Com.) 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
Southern Fuel Co. v. State Industrial Com., 1930 OK 47, 284 P. 35, 141 Okla. 127, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 30 (Okla. 1930).

Opinion

FOSTER, O.

This action is brought to review an award of the State Industrial Commission. On June 17, 1927, after a hearing, the Industrial Commission made an award in which it found that the claimant, John W. Lambert, was injured while in the employ of the Southern Fuel Company on October 4, 1923, and while engaged in a hazardous occupation, subject to the provisions of the Workmen’s Compensation Act, and that such injury arose out of and in the course of his employment, and that the claimant sustained an accidental injury which resulted in a permanent total disability; that the average wage of the claimant was $7.50 a day, and ordered that the Southern Fuel Company pay the claimant a compensation at the rate of $38 a week for 500 weeks, or until otlierwise ordered by the Commission.

On December 28, 1927, the petitioner, Southern Fuel Company, filed an application to reopen the cause and set aside the order of June 17, 1927, on the grounds: First, *128 that there had been fraud practiced by the claimant in securing the order, in that the claimant had in 1913 filed an action in the district court of Pittsburg county against the McAlester-Edwards Coal Company, alleging that this claimant had received an injury while employed by that company whereby the muscles and ligaments of his back were torn and wrenched, and ligaments in the lower portions of his abdomen were bruised, lacerated, and injured, thereby causing a permanent total disability; that this action was settled by the McAlester-Edwards Company, and that this fact was not known to the company until after the order of June 17, 1927, above referred to.

The application to reopen further states that if claimant received an injury on October 4,1923, he has entirely recovered therefrom, and that there has been a change in his- condition since the award on June 17, 1927, in that the claimant has fully recovered from the effects of any such injury, if any he had.

Upon this application, the cause was reopened and testimony was taken at several hearings and certain depositions were also introduced, and thereafter, and on July 28, 1928, the Commission made an order in which it held that, although the testimony on the application to reopen is conflicting, there is sufficient competent testimony to warrant the reinstatement of the order of the Commission made and entered into on June 17, 1927, and thereupon ordered the petitioner herein to resume payment of the compensation as provided in the order of June 17, 1927, until otherwise ordered by the Commission.

The action is brought to review the order of July 28, 1928.

The evidence in this case is, in substance, as follows: John Lambert, the claimant, while employed by the petitioner, was injured on October 4, 1923, while working as a coal miner near McAlester. The injury was a result of a rock weighing about 100 pounds falling from the top of the mine about three to five feet, striking him on the back or shoulders, and knocking him against a post.

Prior to the rendition of the original order made on the 17th of June, 1927, considerable testimony wag taken, ana in that order John Lambert was declared permanently totally disabled. The evidence of several witnesses, including physicians', taken prior to the award of June 17, 1927, appears in-■the record. One Dr. Kilpatrick testified that the claimant was permanently totally disabled.

The evidence on the application to reopen the order of June ^.7, 1927, was had at several hearings. At McAlester, on January 12th, several lay witnesses testified that the claimant appeared as active as ¡before the injury; that- he was often seen driving a Ford car, and apparently had no difficulty in getting about. He applied to the petitioner on one occasion for a job at the mine, but was not employed because he wanted what was called a surface job, while the company wanted him to work underground.

Several doctors were introduced at otner hearings before the final award was made, from which this appeal is prosecuted. Dr. Riley of Oklahoma Oity, who was appointed by the Industrial Commission to examine Lambert, testified that the twelfth dorsal vertebra was fractured, and that this caused Lambert to be totally disabled for sometime, but in his opinion Lambert had entirely recovered from this injury two or three years after the same occurred. This testimony was based on an examination of Lambert in February, 1928, and also upon examination of several x-rays, one of which was taken in the year 19218. Dr. Riley’s conclusion was that any disability, from which the claimant was now suffering, could not possibly be a result of the injury of October 4, 1923. The testimony of several other doctors was to the same effect.

However, the claimant introduced a Dr. Smith and a Dr. Rose from Fort Smith, Ark., who testified that there was also an injury to the fifth vertebra. These doctors, however, did not examine Lambert until in the Spring of 1928, and are the only doctors who testified as to an injury other than the twelfth vertebra. The testimony of Dr. Smith and Dr. Rose is to the effect that the injury of October 4th could have caused the claimant’s present disability; that Lambert was permanently totally disabled so far as digging coal, was concerned, but that he was perhaps able to do some useful manual labor. Lambert, himself, testified that he was unable to perform any kind of labor since the injury except some light work in the garden. and then it was necessary to get upon his knees.

The only two propositions contended for in the application to reopen are: First, that the original award made by the Commission on June 17, 1927, was obtained by fraud; and second, that there has been a change in the condition of the claimant since the making of said award.

While several assignments are argued in the brief of the petitioner, we believe the *129 above propositions are the only ones presented in this cause. So far as the allegations of fraud are concerned, we find no substantial evidence that any fraud was practiced by the petitioner, at least, there is sufficient evidence to support the conclusion of the Industrial Commission that no fraud was practiced. The petitioner contends that certain evidence was refused, tending to support his allegation of fraud, but from an examination of the entire record we cannot find where any testimony was excluded.

There was introduced in the record a petition filed by this claimant in 1913, alleging an injury, but the evidence does not connect the injuries received in 1913, as alleged in the petition, with the injuries received in the accident of October 4, 1923.

Assuming, without deciding, that the Industrial Commission had power to set aside this order of June 17, 1927, upon the grounds of fraud, under the record here presented, we think there is ample evidence to support the conclusion of the Industrial -Commission that no fraud was practiced.

The only other proposition presented by this appeal is whether or not there has been a change in the condition of the claimant since the making of the award of June 17, 1927.

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Bluebook (online)
1930 OK 47, 284 P. 35, 141 Okla. 127, 1930 Okla. LEXIS 30, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/southern-fuel-co-v-state-industrial-com-okla-1930.