Williamson v. Delta Millworks, Inc.

262 So. 2d 183, 1972 Miss. LEXIS 1311
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMay 1, 1972
DocketNo. 46653
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 262 So. 2d 183 (Williamson v. Delta Millworks, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williamson v. Delta Millworks, Inc., 262 So. 2d 183, 1972 Miss. LEXIS 1311 (Mich. 1972).

Opinion

INZER, Justice:

This is a workmen’s compensation case. It comes to this Court on appeal by R. D. Williamson from a judgment of the Circuit Court for the First Judicial District of Hinds County affirming an order of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission. The employer, Delta Millworks, Inc., a self-insurer, cross appeals.

There is no dispute relative to the fact that claimant suffered a compensable injury arising out of and in the course of his employment with appellee. The controversy on this appeal involves the extent of the injury and the degree of permanent disability resulting therefrom. Also involved is the amount of compensation to which claimant is entitled as a result of his injury.

On March 28, 1967, claimant was employed making doors at the appellee’s plant in the City of Jackson. When the doors [185]*185were completed they were stacked on flats or floats to he carried away. The flats were stored lip high on the back porch. When claimant reached up to pull down one of the flats his hand hung in a broken place in the flat. The flat slipped and fell, twisting claimant’s arm and shoulder. Claimant reported the injury to his foreman, and he was sent to the company doctor, Dr. Irvin H. Cronin. Dr. Cronin examined claimant and took x-rays to determine whether there were any broken bones. Finding no broken bones, the doctor diagnosed the injury as contusions to the right elbow. He gave claimant an injection for pain and allowed him to return to work. Claimant continued to work, but continued to suffer pain and returned to Dr. Cronin several times and was given shots for pain.

On May 27, 1967, Dr. Cronin referred claimant to Dr. Thomas C. Turner, an orthopedic surgeon. Dr. Turner diagnosed claimant’s injuries as traumatic right lateral humeral epicondylitis. At that time claimant was having some discomfort in the right side of his neck. Thereafter for a period of over six months, Dr. Turner treated claimant conservatively by injections of Celestone. Although claimant continued to work during this period, he was continuing to suffer pain, and on December 20, 1967, Dr. Turner performed a partial epicondylectomy on claimant’s right elbow. Claimant was able to return to work on February 19, 1968, but continued to have pain. Dr. Turner continued to see claimant at intervals. The report shows that on May 10, he saw claimant, and at that time claimant had some numbness in the right palm and was complaining of having headaches on the right side of the head. Claimant was given a muscle relaxer and told to return to work. Dr. Turner saw claimant again on May 15 and June 7, 1968, at which time the doctor noticed some generalized decrease in sensitivity to the pin prick in the right hand, not following a specific neurological pattern. On June 7 Dr. Turner felt that claimant had recovered enough from the elbow injury to be discharged with a five percent permanent disability. Claimant continued to work, but the pain persisted in his shoulder and neck. He returned to Dr. Turner on July 5, 1968, complaining of pain in several parts of his body, most notably the right side of his neck. It was Dr. Turner’s opinion that this pain was only the result of muscle strain, and he gave claimant a muscle relaxer to ease the pain.

Claimant continued to have pain in his shoulders and neck, and on August 12, 1968, without first advising his employer of his intention to do so, he went to a doctor of his own choice, Dr. Orlando C. Andy, a neurosurgeon. Dr. Andy took a detailed history from claimant as to his injury and the treatment since the injury. He examined claimant and determined claimant should be treated conservatively. He had him admitted to the hospital on September 9, 1968, and placed in cervical traction. Claimant was discharged from the hospital on September 20, 1968. During this period Dr. Andy ran several tests. A myelogram was performed which showed no evidence of nerve root avulsion and was within normal limits with relation to discs in the cervical spine. A motor nerve conduction determination revealed no evidence of neuropathy on the right side. Dr. Andy then performed a cervical discogram which revealed ruptures at the fifth and sixth intervertebral discs. It was Dr. Andy’s opinion that the claimant should undergo an operation to excise the fifth cervical disc. Claimant did not advise the employer that he needed the operation for the removal of the disc, but returned to the hospital on October 7, 1968. At that time Dr. Andy operated on the fifth cervical disc. It was excised from the interior approach and a fusion was performed between the bodies of C-5 and C-6. This operation was primarily intended to help the fifth cervical disc, and it was the doctor’s opinion that the sixth cervical disc should be removed.

It was Dr. Andy’s opinion that without an operation on the sixth cervical inter-[186]*186vertebral disc, claimant reached maximum medical recovery on April 28, 1969. It was also his opinion that the trouble which resulted in the operation performed on the claimant was causally related to the injury that claimant sustained on March 12, 1967, while working' for appellee. It was his opinion that in the terms of permanent partial disability that appellant’s present disability without the suggested operation was between fifteen and twenty-five percent, but in relation to doing heavy work, it was 100 percent.

Dr. Turner testified that in his opinion claimant did not suffer any injury to his neck of sufficient severity to result in the operation by Dr. Andy and that the operation was not causally related to the injury which claimant suffered on March 12, 1967. However, he admitted that claimant did have symptoms of a ruptured C-S or C-6 disc, but the symptoms, in Dr. Turner’s opinion, were not “severe enough to make me suspect a lesion of that magnitude.” After claimant was released by Dr. Andy as having reached maximum medical recovery, he returned to appellee’s plant in Jackson to go back to work. Appellee advised him that he was not to work any longer and to stay away from the plant. Claimant then secured employment at a self-service filling station where he worked eight hours per day for seven days per week. This work does not involve any heavy lifting and consisted mainly of collecting the money after the customer placed the gasoline in his car. For this work he was paid $1.10 per hour. His average weekly wage while working for appellee eight hours per day for five days a week was $62.56.

The attorney referee found that claimant sustained an injury to his right elbow while working with lumber flats at Delta Millworks, Inc. and as a result of that injury claimant was temporarily totally disabled for sixty-six days between December 7, 1967, and February 18, 1968, and was temporarily partially disabled during the rest of such period but continued to work and lost no wages.

The attorney referee found as a result of the injury claimant was permanently partially disabled to the extent of five percent to his right arm and suffered a loss of wage earning capacity of $6 per week.

The employer was ordered to pay claimant $35 per week for nine weeks and three days beginning on December 7, 1967, and ending on February 18, 1968, and to pay claimant $4 per week for permanent partial disability beginning February 19, 1968, and continuing for 450 weeks. The attorney referee found that the employer furnished claimant medical services and supplies as required or requested, but claimant sought medical services of a doctor of his own choosing for which the employer was not liable.

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Bluebook (online)
262 So. 2d 183, 1972 Miss. LEXIS 1311, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williamson-v-delta-millworks-inc-miss-1972.