White v. Allstate Insurance Co.

386 S.W.2d 601, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2866
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedDecember 31, 1964
DocketNo. 6666
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 386 S.W.2d 601 (White v. Allstate Insurance Co.) 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
White v. Allstate Insurance Co., 386 S.W.2d 601, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2866 (Tex. Ct. App. 1964).

Opinion

STEPHENSON, Justice.

This is a workman’s compensation case. Judgment was rendered in the trial court that plaintiff take nothing. The jury found in answer to special issue No. 1 that plaintiff did not receive an accidental injury while working in the course of her employment. The jury also found plaintiff’s incapacity was due solely to some other disorder or disease or a condition of health. The parties will be referred to here as they were in the trial court.

Plaintiff contends that there was no evidence to support the findings of the jury mentioned above. These are questions of law to be determined by considering only the evidence favorable to such findings and disregarding all other.

Plaintiff alleged in her petition that she was totally and permanently disabled by reason of an accidental injury received June 13, 1961, while working in the course and scope of her employment for Sears, Roebuck and Company. The petition further alleged that she hurt her back while lifting a box.

The only evidence in this case was given by the plaintiff, a doctor called by plaintiff, a doctor called by defendant, and the hospital records which contained medical histories, examination, treatment and findings.

[603]*603The following is a résumé of the evidence which supported the finding of the jury that plaintiff’s incapacity was due solely to some other disorder or disease or condition of health. Plaintiff testified to a series of conditions of her health during the past including being hospitalized nine times during the nine years preceding the date of the alleged injury. Her testimony showed she fell in the bathtub in 1957, injuring her back to the extent that she entered the hospital and was placed in traction.

Dr. Thomas H. McGuire, called by defendant, testified he examined plaintiff while she was in the hospital in 1959. This examination was at the request of Dr. A. Beyer. The history as given by plaintiff to Dr. McGuire is set out as follows:

“Very well, when I first see a patient, I inquire as to their past history and what may have transpired in the past that might be an element in the present situation, and this lady told me that she had had malaria some four or five times in the past, the last time being some six or eight years before I saw her in ’59. She told me she had pneumonia a couple of times, that in the past she had had her appendix removed in 1942. Her tonsils had been removed. She had a female operation in 1955. A tumor had been removed from her right shoulder blade. At the age of sixteen she had been thrown from a horse, that about five years before I saw her, she lifted a cedar chest at home and strained her back and then that she had fallen in the bathtub some two years before I saw her and had some difficulty. She told me that to her knowledge she did not have any allergies, had not been exposed to any poisons or chemicals, had not taken any shots like lock jaw. She had been told in the past that she had a deformity of the spine. She had had headaches off and on for several years. More recently her vision had been impaired some four or five months before I saw her, and associated with this she had had episodes of pain and swelling around her left eye. She wore glasses and felt that with her glasses her vision was about normal. * * * Yes, sir; she told me that more recently her vision had been impaired for the past four or five months. Associated with this there had been some pain and swelling around her left eye. She wore glasses and with her glasses, she felt that the sharpness of her vision was fairly normal, but had difficulty in seeing to the side. She also told me that her menses, her periods, had been somewhat irregular since her female operation in 1955. The hearing in her left ear was impaired and she had some episodes of catches in her neck. There were episodes of numbness involving her left arm and left leg. She had had some pain in her low back with radiation down her left leg as far as the ankle. There had been swelling in her body due to fluid retention. Her kidneys and bladder had been normal, but her balance had been somewhat unsteady in that she tended to fall and two or three times in the last few weeks had fallen at home. That was the extent of the history as she told it to me.”

Dr. McGuire also testified that plaintiff complained of pain running down her left leg. He performed a neurological examination, and was not able to determine any physical reason for her complaints. He told Dr. Beyer that plaintiff’s symptoms might be due to nervous tension.

The hospital records offered in evidence showed plaintiff was examined by Dr. Beyer at the same time plaintiff was in the hospital in 1959 and his final impression was given as “anxiety state”.

Dr. Irving M. Watson was called by plaintiff. He examined and treated plaintiff for this injury and gave the only testimony in the record pertaining to causation between plaintiff’s injury and her incapacity as follows:

“Q. Now, Doctor, these things that you found wrong with her back there, [604]*604tenderness in her back, the positive straight leg raising test, the loss of sensation along the dermatome controlled by the fourth and fifth inter-spaces, are those things — and the muscle spasms you say you found in her back — are those things, Doctor, things that would be caused by an injury or are those things that would be caused by anxiety?
“A. These particular complaints and findings on a patient are certainly much more likely to be on a basis of some type of injury.
“Q. Were the findings that you made, Doctor, and the diagnosis you made consistent with the history that she gave you that on the day before you saw her she was lifting a box at Sears when she got this sudden pain in her back?
“A. Yes, sir.”

On Cross Examination, Dr. Watson gave this testimony:

“Q. Dr. Watson, on the basis of what you know, the entire medical history, the findings that the operation done in Houston showed, you can’t say that at this time that there is any organic or any physical reason for her to be suffering with the bad back, can you?
“A. There is no organic reason that I can point out and say that is what is causing the trouble, no, sir.
“Q. At this time you don’t actually have any explanation on any physical basis for the complaints that she has ?
“A. I don’t have one that satisfies me, no sir.”

Also, Dr. Watson gave testimony as to the history given him by the plaintiff as follows:

“Q. All right; now, I want to ask you a few questions about the medical history you took here, Doctor, when she came in to see you. When you saw Mrs. White on- — in June of 1961, I believe you told Mr. Phelps here that you took a medical history from her and in which she reported to you — you will have to forgive me. I can’t read this too well here.
“A. ‘Patient had similar trouble-with back a couple of years ago and was. told she had one or more herniated discs- and needs surgery; however, she recovered enough to return to work; however, she has continued to have trouble with back since then.’
“Q. In other words, since this original injury?
“A. Yes, sir.”

Dr.

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Bluebook (online)
386 S.W.2d 601, 1964 Tex. App. LEXIS 2866, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/white-v-allstate-insurance-co-texapp-1964.