State Ex Rel. New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. Richardson

61 S.W.2d 409, 227 Mo. App. 1221, 1933 Mo. App. LEXIS 82
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMay 22, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 61 S.W.2d 409 (State Ex Rel. New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. Richardson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State Ex Rel. New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. Richardson, 61 S.W.2d 409, 227 Mo. App. 1221, 1933 Mo. App. LEXIS 82 (Mo. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

TRIMBLE, J.

This is a proceeding in certiorari from the Circuit Court of Cole County, Missouri, to the Missouri Workmen’s Compensation Commission questioning the jurisdiction or power of that body to make a temporary or partial award, “on change of condition, ’ ’ after it has made what relator herein, New Amsterdam Casualty Company, calls a final awm'd in a claim of compensation by Leo Winschel for injuries alleged to have been sustained by him while in the course of his employment as an employee of Stix, Baer & Fuller Company, a corporation, against said employer and relator as its insurer. The writ of certiora^-i was issued and served and, after making due and proper return to the writ, said Commission filed motion to quash and dismiss the writ, which the trial court sustained after due hearing and consideration thereof, and said writ was quashed and the cause was remanded to the Workmen’s Compensation Commission. Petitioner and relator thereupon appealed to this court from the trial court’s action.

From the record of said Commission, certified, attached to and returned with, its return to the writ of certiorari, we find that on June 25, 1930, one of the members of said commission as referee made an award in favor of Leo Winschel, said employee, against said employer and insurer (relator herein) for injuries arising out of an accident happening November 15, 1929, in St. Louis County, Missouri, which said award is as follows:

“For temporary total disability the sum of $13.33 per week for nineteen weeks, each of said payments to begin as of November 15, 1929, and to be payable and be subject to modification and review as provided in said act. Subject to credit for $205.66 previously paid employee. Also subject to an attorney’s fee of $15, payable in a lump sum to Louis A. Lauck, attorney for employee, same to be a lien on the compensation awarded herein.”

On July 1, 1930, the employee made application for review by the full commission which was granted and said review was had, and on July 17, 1930, the full commission affirmed on review the award made *1223 June 25, 1931, the award of affirmance being in the identical words of the first award.

On September 10, 1930, employee Winschel filed application for rehearing and review, in which was the following:

“8. Nature of change in condition: Employee sustained a back strain to left sacroiliac and lumbo sacro. Such condition subsequent to award dated July 17, 1930, has changed for the worse necessitating manipulation under anaesthetic and the placing of the back in a plaster paris cast and on account of such change in condition employee has been and is totally disabled for work. Causing a change of condition for the worse which is permanent.”

The Commission acknowledged receipt of said application and gave notice that it would hold the hearing on September 11, 1931.

On that date it held the “Hearing on Change of Condition” and made a “Temporary or Partial Award on Change of Condition,” and “after hearing the parties at issue, their representatives and evidence” found and awarded “temporary or partial compensation for said accident in favor of the above employee and against the above employer and insurer as provided in the Missouri Workmen’s Compensation Act, as follows:

“For temporary total disability the sum of $13.33 per Aveek from July 25, 1930, to and including March 15, 1932, with the right in the employee to ask for an extension thereof should disability extend beyond said date and with the right in the employer and insurer to ask for a modification hereof should disability end prior to March 15, 1932.
‘ ‘ This case is before the Commission by virtue of application made under'Section 3340, Revised Statutes of Missouri 1929, and we find from the evidence introduced that employee has proved that due to the accident of November 15, 1929, there has been a change in his condition for the worse since the Commission’s final award of July 17, 1930, and he is entitled to compensation as above indicated.
“Each of said payments to begin as of July 25, 1930, and to be payable and be subject to modification and review as provided in said Act.
“This award is only temporary or partial and is subject to further order, and the proceedings are hereby continued and the case kept open until a final award can be made. If this award be not complied with, the amount hereof shall be doubled in the final award, if such final, award is in accordance herewith.
‘ ‘ Given at the City of Jefferson, State of Missouri, this 19th day of September, 1931.”

It is the making of this temporary or partial award on change of condition, after what relator calls a final award, against which relator complains. The contention is that the award made by the full *1224 commission was a final award, and that after final award, the Commission, on a showing of a change of condition, can only end, diminish or increase the compensation of such final award and cannot enter a temporary or partial award.

There is no attack made on the sufficiency of the testimony to justify the action of the Commission in what it did, but only upon the legal right or power of the Commission to make any temporary award at a reopening on a change of condition shown.

No appeal lies from a temporary or partial award made by the Commission. [State ex rel. v. Missouri Workmen’s Compensation Commission, 10 S. W. (2d) 916, 918.] Consequently relator has resorted to certiorari. By means of this writ, the circuit court of Cole County has jurisdiction to review the Commission’s record to see whether, in the matter complained of, the Commission has abused, gone beyond or exceeded its power. [Sec. 23, Art. 6, Mo. Const., 15 Mo. St. Ann., p. 217; State ex rel. v. Westhues, 286 S. W. 396, 398; State ex rel. v. Board of Education, 294 Mo. 106, 118.] Indeed, respondents make no contention to the contrary, if the Commission has exceeded its power or jurisdiction; but their contention is that the Commission has not done so. And, as we interpret the record, the trial court quashed the writ of certiorari because the Commission’s jurisdiction had not been exceeded by it and not for any supposed want of power in the trial court to issue the writ.

It may not be necessary to so say, but we cannot refrain from remarking, that it is not conclusively shown that the award made by the full commission on review, July 17, 1930, was a technical final award in the sense that it was made as, and intended to be, a finality unless, on a review, under Section 3340, Revised Statutes of Missouri 1929, 12 Mo. St. Ann., p. 8273 (being Section 42 of original Act, Laws 1925, p. 396), the Commission would make an award “ending, diminishing or increasing” the compensation previously awarded.

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Bluebook (online)
61 S.W.2d 409, 227 Mo. App. 1221, 1933 Mo. App. LEXIS 82, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-new-amsterdam-casualty-co-v-richardson-moctapp-1933.