Texas Employers' Ins. v. Jimenez

267 S.W. 752
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 19, 1924
DocketNo. 7228. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by50 cases

This text of 267 S.W. 752 (Texas Employers' Ins. v. Jimenez) 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. v. Jimenez, 267 S.W. 752 (Tex. Ct. App. 1924).

Opinion

COBBS, J.

Appellees presented their claim for compensation to appellant, Texas Employers’ Insurance Association, on one of its blank forms, which in part reads as follows:

“This is to notify you, Texas Employers’ Ins. Ass’n [name of employer or association or company with which employé is insured], that I claim compensation from you under the Employers’ Liability Act of Texas on account of the death of Matias Jimenez [name of deceased employé] on the 20th day of February, 1923, which resulted from injuries sustained on the 26th day of January, 1923, while in employ of Merchants’ Ice & Storage Company [name of employer], San Antonio [city or town]. The place of injury was [name or description of building or place] ice plant and cold storage. The cause of death was [describe cause of injury] lifting large heavy pipe, and received mortal strain, injuring shoulder, chest, lungs and other bodily injuries.”

Matias Jimenez, deceased, was an employé of the Merchants’ Ice & Cold Storage Company to San Antonio, Tex., covered by insurance issued by appellant. '

The Industrial Accident Board heard and considered the claim, and rendered judgment in part, as follows:

“That the said above-named beneficiaries have failed to sustain the burden imposed upon them by law to establish to the satisfaction of the Board that the said Matias Jimenez, deceased, suffered any injury whatever on January 26, 1923, which thereafter produced his death; and therefore his said claims for compensation must be and the same are hereby in all things denied and refused, and it is so ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the Board.”

The appellees appealed from such ruling to the Thirty-Seventh District Court of Bex-ar county, and by their pleading, among other things, alleged:

“On or about January 26, 1923, Matias Jimenez, Sr., * * * received injuries which resulted in his death upon February 20, 1923, and the work that he was doing and the conditions under which he had been laboring had an injurious effect upon him and directly caused and contributed to his death.
“While in the course of said employment the said Matias Jimenez, Sr., strained and injured his right shoulder, chest, and lungs, and he was subjected to cold and exposure, and he was working with and about pipes containing ammonia, and he inhaled the fumes thereof, and thereby his shoulders, chest, lungs and entire body and nervous system was severely injured and weakened and his death was a direct result thereof.”

Appellant answered by plea to the jurisdiction, in said plea claiming that since no complaint had been made Ibefore the Industrial Accident Board concerning any conditions under which said Matias Jimenez was working, that so much of plaintiffs’ cause of action as depended upon cold, exposure, or the inhalation of ammonia fumes was a new cause of action, asserted for the first time in the trial court, and that inasmuch as the Industrial Accident Board had exclusive original jurisdiction of such cause of action that the trial court was without jurisdiction thereover on this appeal from the award of the Industrial Accident Board; and, further, by demurrer, denial, and special allegations to the effect that the death of said Matias Jimenez was due to natural causes being unrelated to his employment by said Merchants’ Ice & Cold Storage Company.

The cause was tried with a jury, upon special issues, which issues were answered adversely to the defendant in the trial' court, and judgment entered against the defendant below and in favor of the plaintiffs, on the I8th day of January, 1924, “that the plaintiff, Teresa Salazar de Jimenez, do have and. recover in her own behalf for her own use and benefit the sum of $1,417.96 of and from the defendant, Texas Employers’ Insurance Association; and it is further ordered, adjudged, and decreed by the court that the plaintiffs, Matias Jimenez, Federico Jimenez, Marcelo Jimenez, Petra Jimenez, Rita Jimenez, and Josefina .Jimenez, suing herein by their next friend, Teresa Salazar de Jimenez, do have and recover of and from the defendant, Texas Employers’ Insurance Association, the sum of $1,417.96 [said recovery by said six minor children to be divided equally between said. six children, making $236.32% each]; together with interest thereon at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum from the 19th day of January, 1924, until paid.”

The first, second, third, and fourth propositions are practically the same and. are based upon assignments of error Nos. 1 and 6 in amended motion for new trial. The .point presented is that the Industrial Accident Board has exclusive jurisdiction of all claims for compensation under the Workmen’s Compensation Act, and that district courts have only appellate jurisdiction and in such courts the trial is de novo ; and that on a de novo trial, in an appellate court, the plaintiff is limited to the particular and identical claim" presented, to the Board and to no other new or additional claim not there presented for the Board’s adjudication. We think that a sound and correct proposition of law.

Then the question here presented for determination is whether more than one claim or cause of action was presented. We have freely used, in the consideration of this case, the excellent little work, “Huson’s Workmen’s Compensation.”

An examination of the Industrial *755 Accident Board statute shows that no particular proceedings are required. All that is required there is an intelligible statement of the matter in controversy, identifying the interested parties and giving such facts as are necessary for the Board to understand the nature of the matters in controversy, and that its rulings "and decisions relating to the claim should be on the facts presented. In its proceedings witnesses may be heard, though the board will consider ex parte statements under oath. The right of appeal from the action of the Board is given to either aggrieved party. It has been held that an appeal from the ruling and decision of the Board is analogous to an appeal from a justice’s court to a county court, as in both cases the trial is de novo. Strictly speaking it is not an appeal, but a trial and is to proceed as though no hearing had been had before the Board. It is a suit, though called an appeal, to set aside an award and the issue to be tried is the full determination of the full amount of the insurer’s liability that might have been determined under the Act. The entire matter is reopened as though there had never been a trial, and the entire question of the totality and permanency of the injury is before the court for adjudication.

In the pleading in the district court it is only necessary to set out the jurisdictional facts, such as that the notice had been given, within 30 days from date of injury; a statement of the injuries and that the employer was at the time of the injury a subscriber and that he is entitled to compensation under the terms of the Act.

Under the Act compensation may be recovered for the death of an employé which was caused concurrently by a disease and by injuries received in the course of his employment.

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Bluebook (online)
267 S.W. 752, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/texas-employers-ins-v-jimenez-texapp-1924.