Special Indemnity Fund v. Bonny

1964 OK 240, 397 P.2d 152, 1964 Okla. LEXIS 465
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedNovember 4, 1964
Docket40986
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 1964 OK 240 (Special Indemnity Fund v. Bonny) 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
Special Indemnity Fund v. Bonny, 1964 OK 240, 397 P.2d 152, 1964 Okla. LEXIS 465 (Okla. 1964).

Opinion

WILLIAMS, Justice.

On July 11, 1963, Nath Bonny, Jr., filed a first notice of injury and claim for compensation before the State Industrial Court alleging that on January 16, 1963, while in the employment of Bryan Cole Transfer Company he sustained an accidental injury to his right eye when a steel beam struck the right side of his head. On the same day the parties entered into a joint petition settlement in the basis of 25 per cent permanent partial disability to the right eye as a result of the injury on January 16, 1963. On August 15, 1963, claimant’s claim against the Special Indemnity Fund, hereinafter referred to as the Fund, was presented to a trial judge of the Industrial Court. It was stipulated by the parties that claimant had sustained his last injury on January 16, 1963, while employed by Bryan Cole Transfer Company resulting in 25 per cent permanent partial disability to the right eye and that he was a previously impaired person within the meaning of the Workmen’s Compensation Act by reason of the total loss of his left eye resulting from the explosion of a dynamite cap in 1943.

The sole question submitted to the lower court was whether there was a material increase in disability sustained by claimant as a result of the combination of the two disabilities over that which would have resulted from the subsequent injury alone.

On February 5, 1964, the trial judge entered an order finding that as a result of a combination of claimant’s previous disability with the disability sustained from the last injury claimant was totally and *154 permanently disabled for the performance of ordinary manual labor and was entitled to 500 weeks compensation, less credit of 200 weeks for the total loss of both eyes. The order was appealed to the court en banc by the Fund where, on April 1, 1964, the order was affirmed.

This is an original proceeding instituted by the Fund for a review of the award. It advances the following four propositions for vacating the above order:

“1. The court erred as a matter of law in failing to find and determine the degree or per cent of disability claimed sustained as a result of the last injury.
“2. The court erred as a matter of law in failing to find the extent of claimant’s disability prior to his last injury.
“3. Either claimant was permanently and totally disabled before the last injury by reason of industrial blindness in both eyes, or he is not permanently and totally disabled at this time.
“4. The court made no finding with reference to the temporary total compensation paid, and allowed no credit therefor.”

Prior to the amendment of 85 O.S.1959 Supp. § 172 in 1961 it was not necessary to evaluate a claimant’s previous disabilities where the claimant was permanently and totally disabled. In instances of permanent total disability the Fund received credit only for the disability resulting from the last injury together with any temporary total disability payments made.

The 1961 amendment changed the liability of the Fund in permanent total disability situations. By the amendment such cases were placed in the same category as instances of permanent partial disability. For the first time the statute provided that the Fund, in instances of permanent total disability, should be required to pay only the remainder or balance, if any, after deducting the percentage of disability constituting the claimant a previously impaired person and further deducting the award-made to him for the latter injury standing alone. Special Indemnity Fund v. Corter,. Okl., 389 P.2d 478. From the formula set forth above it is apparent that the trial tribunal has the authority to enter an award against the Fund when it finds, based on competent evidence, that the combination of separate injuries, former and subsequent, produces in the aggregate that quantum of disability which, upon a subtraction of the pre-existing impairments, leaves a remainder of disability materially greater in degree than that adjudged as having been caused by the last injury standing alone. Special Indemnity Fund v. Chambers, Okl., 356 P.2d 1094, and related cases. Therefore it is apparent that if the Fund is allowed credit for all pre-existing disabilities together with the disability resulting from the last injury there is no burden cast on the Fund that was not intended by the legislature in creating the Special Indemnity Fund. To give effect to the purpose intended by the legislature a liberal construction should be accorded the act. Special Indemnity Fund v. Wade, 199 Okl. 547, 189 P.2d 609.

In the case at bar the Fund insists “there is a complete absence of any finding as to the degree or per cent of disability resulting from the last injury alone”; that “the Court merely finds that the claim was settled on joint petition for $750.00. * * ”; that “there is no finding as to the amount of disability the Court felt claimant had prior to the last injury, to this eye, so it is impossible to even guess from this finding the amount of disability claimant may have had as a result of the last injury.”

We do not agree. The record reveals the last accidental injury, which' was to the right eye, was settled on joint petition for $750.00 which “represents twenty-five per cent loss of the eye, * * * Also at the hearing on the claim against the Fund the following was in response to a request from the trial judge as to stipulation *155 ■on the percentage of loss of the eye involved in the joint petition settlement:

"By Mr. Morrison: [Attorney for the claimant] Seven hundred fifty dollars would be twenty-five percent of the ■eye.
“By the Court: That is the right ■eye, the joint petition.
“By. Mrs. Bosonetto: [Attorney for the Fund] Yes, the good eye was the right eye or his eye that he had vision in.”

We have held many times that a ■settlement on joint petition approved by the Industrial Court is an adjudication and ■determination of a disability within the meaning of 85 O.S.1961 § 171. Special Indemnity Fund v. McCoy, Okl., 351 P.2d 725; Special Indemnity Fund v. Simpson, Okl., 349 P.2d 635.

The trial' tribunal, at the conclusion of the hearing from which this action arises, found “that due to claimant’s last injury to his right eye on January 16, 1963, he sustained further permanent partial loss of vision in said right eye to the extent he is now industrially blind in said right eye, and the claim arising therefrom was settled on joint petition for the sum of $750.00”. In view of the stipulation to which reference was made hereinabove, this was in effect an adjudication and determination that claimant sustained 25 per cent permanent partial disability to his right eye as a result of his last injury.

The trial judge’s order, in finding No. 1, contained the following pertinent language:

“ * * * (T)hat prior to said injury [January 16, 1963] claimant was a previously impaired person by virtue of having sustained an accidental personal injury when he was fourteen years of age, which resulted in total loss of the left eye and partial loss of vision of the right eye.” (Emphasis ours.)

In finding No.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1964 OK 240, 397 P.2d 152, 1964 Okla. LEXIS 465, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/special-indemnity-fund-v-bonny-okla-1964.