Texas Employers Ins. Ass'n v. Grimes

186 S.W.2d 280, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 1087
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 9, 1944
DocketNo. 2615.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 186 S.W.2d 280 (Texas Employers Ins. Ass'n v. Grimes) 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
Texas Employers Ins. Ass'n v. Grimes, 186 S.W.2d 280, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 1087 (Tex. Ct. App. 1944).

Opinion

RICE, Chief Justice.

This is a workman’s compensation case wherein O. E. Grimes was plaintiff and Texas Employers Insurance Association was defendant. The judgment of the trial court, based on the answers of the jury to the submitted special issues, awarded plaintiff compensation for total and permanent disability, and the insurance company has appealed.

Viewing the record most favorably from plaintiff’s standpoint, the following is the factual situation:

Between one and three o’clock P.M. on October 19, 1942, plaintiff, an employee of Mid-Tex Motors, Inc., in the course of his employment was demonstrating to a prospective purchaser a used car owned by his employer. While driving the car on Washington Avenue in the city of Waco, the motor was not functioning properly, and plaintiff alighted and gave the car a push, whereupon he felt a pain under his shoulder blade in the region of his right lung. Although the pain persisted in some degree the rest of the afternoon, plaintiff continued to discharge the duties of his employment, until thereafter, about six o’ clock P.M. on the same date, he had occasion to push another car on the used car lot of his employer, when a pain of such se *281 verity struck him in the same region that he collapsed and was carried home, and thence to a hospital where his injury was determined by the attendant doctor to be a spontaneous pneumothorax, which was explained to be an accidental injury to the plura, or outside covering of the lung, similar to a blowout in a car tire. There was evidence from medical experts that plaintiff’s injury was the result of a strain.

On March 25, 1943, plaintiff and his attorney mailed notice of injury and claim for compensation to the Industrial Accident Board with reference to the injury received by plaintiff on October 19, 1942, and on the same day mailed a copy thereof to the defendant, wherein was stated:

“The time of my injury was about 6:30 o’clock P.M. on or about the 19th day of October, 1942. The place of injury was 18th and Washington Streets, Waco, Texas. The cause of injury was caused because of pushing a car at 18th and Washington Streets, Waco, Texas, on or about October 19, 1942, and aggravated injury when tried to return to work on or about the 3rd day of December, 1942.

“State part of body injured and nature and extent of injury: Rupture right lung, and claimant totally and permanently injured and claimant asks for award for 401 weeks for total permanent disability.”

In due course the Industrial Accident Board made its award, from which plaintiff appealed and timely filed suit in one of the District Courts of McLennan County, Texas. In his first amended petition, he •alleged the accident and injury at 18th and Washington Streets, and in addition, and for the first time, alleged the facts which occurred late in the afternoon of the same day at the used car lot of his employer and hereinabove set forth. Defendant thereupon filed its plea to the jurisdiction of the court and plea in abatement, which the court overruled, and defendant excepted. On the trial of this cause evidence was adduced in support of plaintiff’s pleaded allegations in respect to what transpired at the intersection of 18th and Washington Streets, and also as to what took place later on the same afternoon on the used car lot of his employer.

By its first point defendant takes the position that the trial court committed reversible error in overruling its plea to the jurisdiction and plea in abatement because, it says, the court had no jurisdiction to try any cause of action based upon alleged injuries resulting from an accident taking place at the used car lot of plaintiff’s employer located at 9th and Austin Streets, late in the afternoon of October 19, 1942, for the reason that such claim or cause of action had not been passed upon by the Industrial Accident Board.

As sustaining its position defendant says that the only accident or injuries submitted to the Industrial Accident Board in any form was the one described in the notice mailed by plaintiff to the Industrial Accident Board and defendant on March 25, 1943, hereinabove set forth, wherein it was stated that the place of the injury was 18th and Washington Streets, and that the cause of the injury was pushing a car at said street intersection and aggravating the injury when plaintiff tried to return to work on or about December 3, 1942.

Plaintiff takes the position that appellant’s contention should be overruled because : (1) Appellee made claim for and suffered only one accidental injury, that is, a ruptured lung, occurring on October 19, 1942; and this was the identical injury claimed before the Industrial Accident Board and declared upon in the trial court; (2) a claim for compensation is properly informal; and plaintiff’s claim was for a general injury having its inception in a strain while pushing a car at 18th and Washington Streets resulting in pain in the area of his ruptured lung, which persisted until he collapsed on the used car lot of his employer on the same afternoon.

Plaintiff pleaded and the jury found that plaintiff’s employer had notice of plaintiff’s injury within less than thirty days after it occurred. This jury finding is not attacked by defendant.

The courts of this state have liberally construed the Workmen’s Compensation Act in favor of the injured employee in order that his rights under said Act might be preserved to' him in accordance with the manifest intention of the Legislature, and have uniformly ruled that the proceedings before the Industrial Accident Board are of a loose, informal and nontechnical nature. It has been held that it is not necessary for an injured employee to allege in his claim for compensation before the Board the amount of his claim in dollars and cents. Booth v. Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n, 132 Tex. 237, 123 S.W.2d 322.

It appears to be the settled law that when the claim is for a general injury, *282 a general description in the claim made before the Industrial Accident Board is sufficient, and upon appeal to the courts it may be enlarged to include all injuries proximately resulting from the accident complained of. Indemnity Ins. Co. of N.A. v. Harris, Tex.Civ.App., 53 S.W.2d 631; Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Choate, 126 Tex. 368, 89 S.W.2d 205; Booth v. Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n, 132 Tex. 237, 123 S.W.2d 322. It is also held that internal injuries resulting from usual strain in the course of the employment are compensable injuries. Carter v. Travelers Ins. Co., 132 Tex. 288, 120 S.W.2d 581; Southwestern Surety Ins. Co. v. Owens, Tex.Civ.App., 198 S.W. 662; Georgia Casualty Co. v. Mixner, Tex.Civ.App., 289 S. W. 420.

Plaintiff specially pleaded and relied upon actual notice of his injury to his employer and to defendant within less than thirty days of his injury, and, as stated above, the jury’s finding in favor of plaintiff in this respect is not here questioned.

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

Related

Mozley v. American General Insurance Company
324 S.W.2d 925 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1959)
Gulf Casualty Company v. Jones
290 S.W.2d 334 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1956)
Colvin v. E. I. Du Pont De Nemours Co.
88 S.E.2d 581 (Supreme Court of South Carolina, 1955)
Texas Employers Ins. Ass'n v. Patterson
231 S.W.2d 898 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1950)
Gulf Casualty Co. v. Tucker
201 S.W.2d 81 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1947)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
186 S.W.2d 280, 1944 Tex. App. LEXIS 1087, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-employers-ins-assn-v-grimes-texapp-1944.