Traders & General Ins. Co. v. Marrable

126 S.W.2d 746, 1939 Tex. App. LEXIS 512
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedMarch 3, 1939
DocketNo. 13872.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 126 S.W.2d 746 (Traders & General Ins. Co. v. Marrable) 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
Traders & General Ins. Co. v. Marrable, 126 S.W.2d 746, 1939 Tex. App. LEXIS 512 (Tex. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

SPEER, Justice.

This is a workmen’s compensation case. Billie W. Marrable is the employee, Sa-binas Oil Corporation the employer, and Traders & General Insurance Company the insurance carrier.

The employee was injured in the course of his employment by a fall from a ladder while painting an oil tank. His ankle and foot were injured and it was claimed by him to have affected his entire right leg.. Notice was timely given, a hearing had before the Industrial Accident Board, and a final award made. The carrier was dissatisfied with the award and appealed to the District Court of Gregg County. The employee answered and filed cross action in the usual form. Before trial the carrier was permitted to take a non suit and dismiss its action. Answer was made to the cross action by general denial and certain special defenses. Trial was had to a jury, resulting in a judgment for the employee for compensation for 401 weeks, with a lump sum settlement. The carrier perfected its appeal to the Texarkana Court of Civil Appeals, and by an order of the Supreme Court, is before us for review.

For convenience, we shall refer to Traders & General Insurance Company as appellant, and to Billie W. Marrable as appellee.

*748 In the view we take of this appeal, it must be disposed of upon assignments of error raising the sufficiency of the pleadings and . the special issues submitted. Certain of these assignments are well taken and must be sustained, as we shall presently show. Appellant claims that appel-lee’s cause of action is one for specific injuries and that his pleadings are insufficient to raise the issue of a general injury and total incapacity to labor. With this in view, we shall quote so much of appellee’s pleadings as necessary to a discussion of the point.

After allegations in which it appears appellee fell from a ladder while' painting an oil tank for his employer, the details of which are unimportant to the point before us, the cross petition reads: “That while so working in the scope of his employment pursuant to the orders of his employer’s superintendent, defendant (ap-pellee) fell to the ground from the ladder, a distance of some sixteen feet, more or less, breaking the bones of his right leg, ankle and foot. That by reason of these accidental injuries, the hereinafter described disability resulted to the defendant and cross-plaintiff.”

Again, with reference to the nature of the injuries sustained, it was alleged: “Defendant (appellee) would show that as a result of the above described accident, the bones of his right leg, ankle, foot, heel and ankle joint were broken, fractured, impaired and severely injured; that as a result of the fractures, there are adhesions in the right leg, foot, ankle and ankle joint; that there is a marked impairment of the function of the ankle joint and foot; that there is a marked eversion of the right foot and a limitation of the motion of the right ankle joint in all directions, and more particularly that there is a limitation in the flexion and external rotation in the right ankle joint. That the aforementioned fractures healed and knitted in such a way as to result in a shortening of the various fractured bones.- That as a result of the injuries aforementioned, there has been a marked interference with the weight transmission of the body through the right leg, ankle joint, and foot, due to a resulting disalignment of the right leg. Further, that in the joints of the right foot and ankle there has been a marked and extended development of ankylosis. Defendant would show that this injury has resulted in total and permanent incapacity to do manual labor. Defendant would show that before he received the injuries in question, he was a young, strong, and able-bodied man, capable of doing manual labor and fitted only for labor that required physical exertion. That because of the injuries in question, his ability to earn money as a manual laborer has been totally and permanently destroyed.”

There were alternative pleadings, to the effect that if he was not totally and permanently disabled and incapacitated, then, because of said injuries, he had suffered a total and permanent loss of his right leg, and a second alternative plea that he had totally and permanently lost the use of his right foot.

Special issues submitted and their answers were substantially as follows: (1) The work being done by defendant (appel-lee) when injured was one of necessity. (2) Defendant sustained an injury resulting in his total incapacity to labor. (3) Defendant suffers pain when he attempts to use his right leg and foot. (4) That the pain is of such a nature as to prevent defendant from procuring and retaining employment. (5) The pain defendant suffers from using his right leg and foot is permanent. (6) Defendant’s total incapacity to labor is permanent. (7) This is a case in which manifest hardship and injustice will result to defendant if his compensation is not paid in a lump sum. (8) Defendant’s total incapacity to labor will continue for 600 weeks after the date he received the injuries. (9) The injuries received by defendant will not result in a partial incapacity to labor. (12a) The incapacity of defendant is not confined to his right leg. Other issues were submitted, but they need not be discussed here.

Based on the average weekly wage rate found by the jury, judgment was entered for appellee in a lump sum. Motion for new trial, raising all matters presented by assignments here, was overruled by the trial court, and this appeal was perfected.

Appellant’s first and second propositions or points presented here go to the sufficiency of appellee’s pleadings to raise the question of a general compensable injury, as distinguished from a specific injury, as defined by the Workmen's Compensation Act, Vernon’s Ann.Civ.St. art. 8306 et seq. It is contended by appellant that such injury as appellee sustained, as disclosed by his petition in cross-action, was a specific injury for which compensation is provided *749 for a less number of weeks than if the injury had been what is known as a general one. These propositions are based upon assignments which must be sustained.

Article 8306, Sect. 12, R.C.S., is applicable to appellee’s recovery in this case. Under this section, we find the specific injuries enumerated and the. maximum compensation prescribed. Among other specific injuries to named members of the body appears the one relating to loss of the use of a leg, which reads: "For the loss of a leg at or above the knee, sixty per cent of the average weekly wages during two hundred weeks.” Under the same section appears the provision for the loss of a foot, which is in these words: “For the loss of a foot, sixty per cent of the average weekly wages during one hundred and twenty-five weeks”. In the same section of the Act it is provided that: “Where the employé sustains concurrent injuries resulting in concurrent incapacities, he shall receive compensation only for the injury which produces the longest period of incapacity; but this section shall not affect liability for the concurrent loss or the loss of the use thereof of more than one member, for which member compensation is provided in this schedule, compensation for specific injuries under this law shall be cumulative as to time and not concurrent.”

The allegations of the petition in cross-action allege only an initial or original injury to the.

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Bluebook (online)
126 S.W.2d 746, 1939 Tex. App. LEXIS 512, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/traders-general-ins-co-v-marrable-texapp-1939.