Standard Accident Insurance Co. v. Mize

378 S.W.2d 686, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2166
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedApril 20, 1964
Docket7346
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 378 S.W.2d 686 (Standard Accident Insurance Co. v. Mize) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Standard Accident Insurance Co. v. Mize, 378 S.W.2d 686, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2166 (Tex. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

• CHAPMAN, Justice.

This is an appeal by Standard Accident Insurance Company from a judgment based upon a jury verdict for Raymond D. Mize in a suit filed by him under the Workmen’s Compensation Act for accidental injuries received while an employee of Maxey Construction Company.

The suit was filed as a general injury case. The jury found appellee totally disabled for six weeks and partially permanently disabled following the six weeks of total disability. The first point contends the finding of the jury of partial permanent incapacity is against the great weight and preponderance of the evidence. To pass upon the point requires a review of all the testimony. In re King’s Estate, King v. King, 150 Tex. 662, 244 S.W.2d 660.

Appellee went to work for Maxey Construction Company in 1946 when'he was 16 years of age, immediately after high school graduation. He went to work as- a common laborer doing only heavy physical work and by 1949 had worked himself up to the position of journeyman carpenter. That year he was made a combination carpenter and supervisor and continued working as such until the injury on July 24, 1959.

. At about 5:30 p. m. the day of his injury appellee was moving sheets of plywood to cover holes in the first floor of- a church building under construction when he accidentally stepped into a hole in the floor that had been covered with Sizo-Kraft paper. He fell fourteen or fifteen feet to the concrete floor in the basement, was knocked unconscious and did not regain consciousness until 10:30 that night after he had been carried to the hospital by the church janitor.

He was hospitalized ten days, suffering from pains all over his body “ * * * like somebody had threshed me with a baseball bat all over.” His wrists were in pain, as was his neck, back and ribs “ * * * and that low back was what was hurting me the worst,” he testified.

*688 A back brace was prescribed for him by his physician, Dr. Stiles, which he wore for six to eight months. He continued to see Dr. Stiles for several months, still suffering with pain in his back and neck.

While still wearing his brace on his back he started going back to the construction job after about six weeks following the injury. He would do some supervisory .work, resting from time to time, or go home at intervals to rest.

His employer continued to pay him $150.-00 per week. Both appellee and Mr. Mc-Abee, general construction superintendent, testified it was a company policy with key ^employees to pay their salary right straight through when they were sick or injured. Mr. McAbee testified appellee was in the category in which such rule was applicable. Mize continued to work in an advisory capacity drawing his regular salary, trying -to do some light carpentry work and had a palary increase of $25.00 per week during the -time.

In the summer of 1960 while still suffering from pains in his back the claim adjustor for appellant sent him to Dr. R. Q. Lewis, an orthopedic surgeon, who x-rayed him and placed him on physical therapy and exercises. He testified he could not take the exercises because of the back pain. Dr. Lewis sent him to Dr. Jack Dunn, a neurosurgeon, and he sent him to Dr.'Bronwell for removal of a tumor from his hip. The tumor soon healed and gave no further trouble. He testified the soreness in his back and down his legs continued to bother him up to the time of trial. The claim adjustor also authorized Mize to take treatments for three weeks from Dr. Blair, a chiropractor. He continued the treatments to the day of trial, though the insurance company agreed to pay for only three weeks. Dr. Blair treats only the neck and will not testify in court.

Mize was next sent by his attorneys to Dr. Lansford, a chiropractor. He took x-rays, examined him and testified in the trial. He found the right hip about three-fourths of an inch lower than the left; a half-inch difference in the left leg and the right leg, with an imbalance in the pelvis; a compression of the disc at the fifth lumbar-sacral area, with nerve root pressure and with a forward displacement of the fifth lumbar vertebra. He also found some rotation of the fifth cervical vertebra with consequent nerve root pressure in that area and a narrowing at the fourth and fifth lumbar interspace, with probable nerve root pressure. He found no congenital abnormality. He testified in response to a hypothetical question giving the nature of the fall, the treatments used and the pains testified to by Mize, that in his opinion the conditions described in his neck and back are permanent and he would be unable to do his type of work regularly.

‘ In answer to issues submitted the jury found the partial incapacity began on September 4, 1959, which is the day he reported back to work still wearing his brace and still under treatment of a doctor. He did little manual labor and took rest periods. The jury gave him six weeks of total incapacity and found his partial incapacity started immediately thereafter. They found his partial incapacity to be permanent.

Dr. Lewis testified Mize’s problem was primarily postural, super-imposed upon a congenital defect in his back, though in his report to appellee’s counsel on July 30, 1962, he did not mention posture.

Maxey Construction Company dissolved in February 1962, after Mr. Maxey’s death and appellee went to work for Republic National Life Insurance Company in April 1962, as a sales representative. To December 1962, he had earned $2,100.00 and the company representative testified he would probably earn less than $3,000.00 in 1963. Appellant contends that the jury’s answer of $70.00 per week reduction in appellee’s wage-earning capacity is contrary to the great weight and preponderance of the evidence because his employer, Maxey, continued to pay him his regular scale of pay and even raised him $25.00 per week.

*689 In speaking of a workman’s rights under the Workmen’s Compensation Act in a situation such as that shown by Mize in this case it has been textually stated that:

“If his capacity and efficiency to work are not the same as before the injury he is entitled to compensation regardless of the fact that he was paid, after the injury, as much or more than he earned prior to or at the time of the injury.” 45 T.J., Workmen’s Compensation, Section 161, Page 589.

In Hartford Accident & Indemnity Ins. Co. v. Miller, Tex.Civ.App., 5 S.W.2d 181 (writ dismissed) our court has held:

“While the evidence discloses that the plaintiff has been receiving the same or larger wages than he received prior to his injury, there is evidence that his earning capacity has been seriously affected, and his capacity or incapacity is not to be measured solely by the fact that he has received such wages since his injury, and, in the event he should lose his position with his present employer, the injury received by him has seriously affected his earning capacity.”

The Fort Worth Court of Civil Appeals has held: “ * * * it is not necessary to show economic loss in order to recover permanent disability benefits.” Bituminous Casualty Corporation v.

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

Related

Spillers v. City of Houston
777 S.W.2d 181 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1989)
Standard Fire Insurance Co. v. Rodriguez
645 S.W.2d 534 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1982)
Texas General Indemnity Co. v. Hancock
422 S.W.2d 565 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1967)
Jones v. Blackmon
419 S.W.2d 434 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1967)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
378 S.W.2d 686, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2166, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/standard-accident-insurance-co-v-mize-texapp-1964.