Tuggle v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.

228 So. 2d 671, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5549
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedNovember 17, 1969
DocketNo. 7769
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 228 So. 2d 671 (Tuggle v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tuggle v. United States Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 228 So. 2d 671, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5549 (La. Ct. App. 1969).

Opinion

REID, Judge.

This action was originally filed by Hollis Tuggle, Sr. against United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company, the workmen’s compensation insurer for C. M. McCarstle, doing business as Ace Armature Works, seeking to recover workmen’s compensation benefits allegedly arising out of two [672]*672separate accidents while in the employ of Ace Armature Works. First, plaintiff alleges he is entitled to $35.00 per week for 100 weeks, as the result of an accident on June 1, 1966, when he was helping move a 900-1000 pound armature with an electrical hoist, and the chain holding the armature slipped, throwing all the weight of the armature on plaintiff, causing him to suffer a rupture. Second, plaintiff alleges he is entitled to $35.00 per week for 300 weeks, as the result of an accident on or about December 1, 1966, when an elevator which he was helping install fell on him. Plaintiff alleges that following the first accident he was sent to the company doctor and then hospitalized for approximately seven days, at which time he underwent surgery, and that as a direct result of the injury one of his testicles had to be removed. He states that after about five weeks he was discharged for light duty and returned to work with Ace Armature Works.

Plaintiff alleges that following the second accident he was again sent to the company doctor who treated him and sent him back to work, and that at the time of the filing of his petition he was still suffering severe pain and was under the doctor’s care.

Plaintiff filed a supplemental petition making his employer a party defendant also, and alleging that a little over a week after the filing of his first petition his employer, Mr. McCarstle, instructed plaintiff to either settle his case immediately with the employer’s insurance company or plaintiff would be fired; that when plaintiff referred Mr. McCarstle to his attorney, Mr. McCarstle fired plaintiff; and that because of the collusion between United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company and Mr. McCarstle, plaintiff suffered considerable damages, and prayed for damages in the sum of $125,000.00.

Plaintiff’s supplemental petition further alleged that because of the second accident referred to above he had suffered total disability to his head and neck and, therefore, he was entitled to receive workmen’s compensation benefits at the rate of $35.00 per week for 400 weeks, less benefits previously paid, plus medical expenses.

United States Fidelity & Guaranty Company and C. M. McCarstle, d/b/a Ace Armature Works, filed a peremptory exception to plaintiff’s supplementary and amending petition on the grounds that plaintiff’s original petition was for workmen’s compensation based on alleged injuries sustained while in the employ of Ace Armature; that plaintiff’s supplemental and amending petition asserted an action in tort against the same defendants; that insofar as the supplemental petition attempted to assert a tort action against the defendants, it disclosed no cause of action; and prayed for judgment rejecting plaintiff’s tort demand.

Defendants’ exception was sustained and plaintiff’s amended petition insofar as it asserted a tort action and' damages was dismissed, and plaintiff’s rights under that portion of his amended petition which asserted claims under the Workmen’s Compensation law were reserved.

In the defendants’ answers to plaintiff’s request for admissions and to plaintiff’s petition, it was denied that an accident occurred either on the first of June 1966 or on the first of December 1966, as alleged by plaintiff, which resulted in any injury to plaintiff, and it was further alleged that plaintiff lost no time from his work as a result of the alleged second injury and that he was paid full wages by his employer until his employment terminated.

For written reasons assigned, judgment was rendered in favor of the defendants and against plaintiff, dismissing plaintiff’s suit at his cost, from which judgment plaintiff has appealed.

Appellant’s brief sets forth two errors, first, that the lower Court was in error in holding that the loss of a testicle is not compensable under the workmen’s com[673]*673pensation law, and, second, that the lower Court was in' legal error in holding that the second accident (on or about December 1st, 1966) did not happen. We will take up these specifications of error in that order.

Plaintiff’s claim for the loss of his testicle is founded upon the provisions of LSA-R.S. 23:1221(4) (p), which reads as follows:

“(p) In cases not falling within any of the provisions already made, where the employee is seriously permanently disfigured about the face or head, or where the usefulness of a physical function is seriously permanently impaired, the court may allow such compensation as is reasonable and as in proportion to the compensation hereinabove specifically provided in the cases of specific disability, not to exceed sixty-five per centum of wages during one hundred weeks.”

If the plaintiff’s injuries did result in seriously permanently impairing the usefulness of a physical function, he would be entitled to the one hundred weeks compensation provided by the quoted statute, less, of course, whatever compensation had already been paid him.

However, in this connection the trial Judge found as follows, to-wit:

“Dr. Mosely, who testified for plaintiff, stated positively that the operation and removal of plaintiff’s testicle did not in any way affect the plaintiff’s physical functions and not in any way affect his ability to perform his usual work. Dr. Holden, who actually performed the operation, was not called by plaintiff, the presumption is that his testimony would not be favorable to plaintiff.”

Against the testimony of Dr. Mosely, who was an expert witness called by the plaintiff, we have the testimony of plaintiff and his wife to the effect that his sex life had been seriously impaired by the injury.

Our courts have repeatedly held that the lay evidence must give way to expert testimony in situations of this kind, especially in view of the fact that in this case both the plaintiff and his wife were very interested witnesses and stood to win or lose by their testimony.

Counsel for plaintiff states in her brief that the loss of a testicle resulting from an accident in the course and scope of employment is res nova in Louisiana law and has never been squarely passed on by the courts. She admits the existence of two cases which she claims touch upon this point, namely, the case of Chapman v. Peavy-Wilson Lumber Co., 14 La.App. 702, 130 So. 874 (1930), and Horn v. Venable, La.App., 142 So. 615 (1932). In Chapman v. Peavy-Wilson, supra, plaintiff had suffered a venereal disease which caused the loss of a testicle and the said loss was not the result of his accident and, therefore, was not compensable.

We believe the case of Horn v. Venable, supra, is in point. This case is cited by the appellee, and in our opinion passes directly on the question of whether or not the loss of a testicle is compensable. In this case the plaintiff received injuries, namely, a left inguinal hernia. He was operated on for this hernia, and in addition, the physician found that he had varicose veins which had no connection with the injury and he talked the plaintiff into letting him perform both operations at the same time. As a result of this operation, removing the varicose veins, plaintiff’s left testicle became completely atrophied.

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Bluebook (online)
228 So. 2d 671, 1969 La. App. LEXIS 5549, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tuggle-v-united-states-fidelity-guaranty-co-lactapp-1969.