Pickering v. Sunnyland Drilling Co.
Pickering v. Sunnyland Drilling Co.
Opinion of the Court
On August 4 or 5, 1955, the appellant, Walter F. Pickering sustained an injury in the course of and arising out of his employment with the Sunnyland Drilling Company. He received temporary total disability compensation for a period of eight weeks thereafter and later received permanent partial disability benefits for the thirty-week period prescribed by the Workmen’s Compensation Law on account of the loss of the distal joint of the left thumb. After the lapse of five years or more, he filed this claim in the early part of 1960, for compensation for a back injury. The claim for compensation on account of his alleged back injury was denied by the attorney-referee, affirmed by the full commission, and on appeal to the circuit court, the decision of the Workmen’s Compensation Commission was affirmed. The appeal to this Court is from the action of the Circuit Court of Jefferson County in affirming the decision of the Commission.
The claimant testified that while he was on a drilling rig at work for the Sunnyland Drilling Company on or about August 5,1955, the safety chain on the tongs broke and spun him around, throwing him on his hip; and that the chain caught and injured his thumb, his hip and
The claimant testified that following the injury of August 5, 1955, he was discharged as being ready to return to work by Dr. Read, the assistant of Dr. G. S. Hicks; that he requested further examination and was sent to Dr. George Purvis, an orthopedic surgeon in Jackson, Mississippi. He admitted that during the five-year period intervening between the injury of August 5, 1955, and the filing of his claim for the back injury during the early part of 1960, he had not gone to the doctor for any reason other than for a non-related foot injury.
Appellant’s wife to whom he was married on December 24, 1957, testified on behalf on the complainant and she said that her husband complained to her several times that his back was hurting him. She admitted that during the periods of when her husband wouldn’t be working he didn’t go to a doctor, but that during these periods he would be looking for another job.
Dr. G. S. Hicks was called as a witness by the claimant and he testified that he was actually not the treating doctor at the time of the injury but that his associate, Dr. Read, had treated the claimant. Dr. Hicks had not
The claimant asked that the claim be reopened; a hearing was had before the attorney-referee thereon and he then sustained the motion of the employer and carrier to dismiss the petition. The Commission and the circuit court both affirmed.
On direct examination Dr. Hicks was asked the following questions and gave the following answers, to-wit:
*876 “Q. Now, Doctor, from that history you. had, were you able to arrive at any disgnosis or not?
A. No.
Q. What would you have to have before you could render a reasonable evaluation of his case and arrive at an opinion?
A. Well, we would have to have him under observation for a few days, and get some X-rays of his lower back and pelvis, and possibly a myelogram.
Q. Would this require hospitalization?
A. Yes.”
It is the position of the claimant that the attorney-referee should have reopened the claim so that Dr. Hicks could observe and examine the patient and report his findings and that the claimant was unable to pay the expense of such hospitalization and examination himself. The attorney-referee and the Commission evidently did not believe that if the claimant had sustained the back injury that he complained of that he would have been able to have worked at the same type of work at eight different drilling companies and have performed the manual labor for the other employers without having ever consulted a doctor about his back injury, and the attorney-referee and Commission evidently believed the testimony of Dr. Hicks, who was introduced by the claimant, that if the claimant had sustained the back injury complained of, it would have been revealed during the course of his treatment during the weeks following the injury of August 5, 1955.
It is a rare case where the decisions of the attorney-referee, the Commission and the circuit court are all overturned on appeal.
We are unable to say in the instant case that the finding of the attorney-referee, which was affirmed by the Commission, is not supported by substantial evidence and we must therefore affirm the judgment of
Affirmed.
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