American Smelting & Refining Co. v. Industrial Commission
American Smelting & Refining Co. v. Industrial Commission
Opinion of the Court
The Industrial Commission of Utah awarded Adolph Of-green compensation because of a permanent injury sustained by him. The injury consisted in the loss of a finger and the partial loss of the use of his left hand. Mr. Ofgreen was injured in the course of his employment by the plaintiff at its smelter at Murray, Utah. Plaintiff prosecutes this proceeding to review the award. This is the second time this cause has been before us for review. In the former review the award was annulled. American Smelting & Refining Co. v. Industrial Commission of Utah, 76 Utah 508, 290 P. 770. At the first hearing the commission found that “the evidence shows that Mr. Ofgreen has refused in this
We further held that the fact that Mr. Ofgreen was timid and probably oversensitive to pain was not a legal excuse for his refusal to accept proper medical aid. After the former award was annulled, the Industrial Commission granted a rehearing, and at the rehearing further evidence was offered touching the question of whether or not Mr. Ofgreen’s finger and the use of his hand would have been saved if he had submitted to proper medical treatment. Upon the original hearing as well as upon the rehearing it was conceded that Mr. Ofgreen received an injury while employed by the American Smelting & Refining Company. The plaintiff company has never made any claim to the contrary. What the company contends is that it is not liable for the permanent disability sustained by Mr. Ofgreen because the immediate or proxi-
One of the findings made by the commission on the second hearing reads as follows: “On February 7th, 1929, the said Adolph Ofgreen, while engaged in dumping a railroad car for the defendant employer, caught his left hand between dumping lever and end of car, sustaining abrasion to his thumb, badly lacerated index finger, laceration of middle finger with fracture of proximal phalanx, as a result of which it was necessary to amputate applicant’s middle finger at the proximal joint by reason of infection resulting from said injury sustained on February 7th, 1929, and that as a result of said injury the applicant has sustained 33*4% loss of function to his left hand at the wrist.”
A similar finding was made by the commission at the first hearing. It is urged that the above finding negatives any inference that the commission believed that the failure of Mr. Ofgreen to accept medical treatment was the proximate cause of the infection and resulting loss of function of his left hand. The remote cause of the partial permanent disability sustained by Mr. Ofgreen was the injury which he received while working for the plaintiff at its Murray smelter. No one has made any claim to the contrary. The finding relied upon to support the present award cannot fairly be said to be equivalent to a finding that the proximate cause of the present disability sustained by Mr. Of-green was the injury which he received while working at' plaintiff’s smelter, and that his refusal to accept medical treatment had nothing to do with the infection which, ac
It is further urged on behalf of the plaintiff that the commission was without jurisdiction to grant a rehearing. The hearing had before the commission after the first award was annulled was not, as that term is generally used, a rehearing. It was more in the nature of a new trial. Our Workmen’s Compensation Act, Laws of Utah 1919, c. 63, p. 165, directs that “upon the hearing the [Supreme] court shall enter judgment either affirming or setting aside the award.” When this court makes an order merely setting aside an award, such order, in the absence of a direction to the contrary, entitles the defeated party to a retrial of the issue before the Industrial Commission. The legal effect of the former order annulling the award was to grant a retrial, and such is the effect of the present order. The Industrial Commission had jurisdiction to hear this cause after the former award was annulled by this court.
The award is annulled.
Concurring Opinion
I concur. By a divided court the award on the first review was annulled because of the finding of the commission that the loss of the applicant’s finger and the loss of function of his hand and for which he claimed and was awarded compensation were the result of a severe infection due to the refusal of the applicant to permit proper medical and surgical treatment. The applicant on sustaining an injury was given first aid by a physician at Murray and then was directed to report the next day for examination and treatment to the chief surgeon of the employer at Salt Lake City but six or seven miles away. The applicant did so, not on the next day, but the day thereafter. The chief surgeon examined the lacerated and injured fingers, took an X-ray
The chief surgeon first saw the applicant on the 9th of February, two days after the injury. He saw him two or three times after that. E'ach time the applicant refused to be treated as the doctor desired to treat him. On the night of the 14th, or the early hours of the 15th, another physician was called at the house of the applicant who found him suffering from a severe infection and removed him to a hospital, where, on the next day or the day thereafter, the applicant’s finger was amputated. Notwithstanding the finding of the commission on the first hearing that the infection was the result of the refusal of the applicant to be properly treated, the commission granted him an award for the loss of his
After the award was annulled by us, the commission, over the objection of the employer, granted the applicant a rehearing. On that hearing the record of all the evidence and of all the proceedings had on the first hearing was put in evidence. The chief surgeon of the employer was again called as a witness; His testimony in every material respect was the same on that hearing as it was on the first and again explained the condition of the injury when he first saw it, the necessity of cleansing the affected parts, removing the devitalized tissues and all foreign matter that might be present, and to reduce the fracture and the complications likely to follow if that was not done. The evidence as to the refusal of the applicant to permit the chief surgeon to give him any treatment except the application of wet dressings was the same on the second as it was on the first hearing.
No testimony was given by the applicant himself on the second hearing. The record merely of his testimony on the former hearing was put in evidence. No other evidence was adduced by him other than the evidence adduced on the former hearing, except two physicians called by him who were not called and who gave no testimony on the first hearing. Neither of them saw the wound or knew anything about it. No history of the case was given them, nor as to the character of the injury, other than as stated in a hypothetical question submitted to them. The hypothetical question was as follows:
“Assuming Doctor that an individual had a compound fracture of the middle of the large finger, and that fracture was treated and dressed, and set according to the best skill and treatment by a reput*311 able physician, and then the hand at the time of the fracture was dirty and grimy, and the flesh considerably lacerated, and then a couple of days later this patient should call upon a reputable physician and surgeon and he should dress it the best he knew how, but that he found that the fracture of the bones had not been properly set and he had attempted to set the bones at that time and the patient refused to permit him to reduce the fracture, and that he called the next day and had that finger dressed by that physician, and he called the following day again and intermittently thereafter for a week he called and had it dressed, and seven days after the injury that infection had developed to such a serious stage in his hand that it was necessary to amputate the finger, what would you say caused the infection?”
In a number of particulars, the hypothetical question does not embody the material facts of the case, and in some particulars embodied facts concerning which there is no evidence. The statement “that the fracture was treated and dressed,” according to the best skill and treatment of a reputable physician, refers to first aid treatment rendered by the physician at Murray, but is not in accordance with the fact. All such physician did was to render first aid and send the applicant for examination and treatment to the chief surgeon at Salt Lake City. Nor is the statement that a couple of days later the applicant called on a physician (the chief surgeon) “who dressed the injury and fracture the best he knew how,” for that the evidence indisputably shows that the chief surgeon was not, because of the refusal of the applicant, permitted to give proper or necessary treatment or any treatment except the application of wet dressings. In other words, the hypothetical question eliminated the all-important element that the applicant without dispute refused to permit the chief surgeon to give proper and necessary treatment; that he not only refused to permit the fracture to be reduced, but also refused all other proper or necessary treatment to be given and as was voluntarily stated by him in his written statement, or to permit the surgeon to do anything except to apply wet dressings. But, upon the submitted hypothesis, the physician called was asked, “What would you say caused the infection?”
If our ruling on the first hearing was right, as I think
Dissenting Opinion
I dissent. The question involved is whether compensation must be denied because the employee refused to submit to certain proposed surgical treatment for his injury. The injury consisted of lacerations and abrasions of his hand and a compound fracture of the middle finger. His wounds were dressed and his finger put in a splint by a doctor at the plant, who instructed him to report to Dr. Pugh at Salt Lake City. He presented himself to Dr. Pugh, who probed and cleansed the wound and made an X-ray examination, discovered the fracture, and proposed to reduce it. He then put on a splint and fastened it to the finger with rubber bands and attempted to set the bone by pulling the end of the finger, but the employee refused to permit him to do so. The doctor then treated the injury from time to time by the application of dressings. A week or so after the accident, infection developed in the employee’s finger, and it became necessary to amputate it. It is not denied that the employee refused to have the fracture reduced, but it is
At the former review an award of compensation to the employee was annulled by this court because of a finding made by the Industrial Commission at the first hearing to the effect that the employee refused proper medical aid tendered him “as a result of which he contracted a severe infection resulting in the entire loss of the great finger of the left hand.” Thereafter the case was again heard by the Industrial Commission. Upon stipulation, all of the evidence produced at the original hearing was considered, and additional opinion or expert evidence was put in by the parties. At the conclusion of the last hearing, the Industrial Commission made findings and again awarded compensation to the employee.
The finding last made concerning the matter in dispute is that the employee sustained the injuries, describing them, “as a result of which it was necessary to amputate applicant’s middle finger at the proximal joint by reason of infection resulting from said injury.” No mention is made in the findings of the employee’s refusal to submit to the surgical treatment tendered, nor of the consequences of such refusal.
It is contended by the employer that the original finding that the infection resulted from the refusal to accept proper treatment still stands and precludes compensation, since there is no contrary finding. This cannot be sustained. The decision of this court upon the review of the first award annulled the whole of the findings and decision of the Industrial Commission and left the case as it stood before any hearing was had or determination made. Denver & R. G. W. R. R. Co. v. Industrial Comm., 74 Utah 316, 279 P. 612. The award before us now must be reviewed upon the record made at the last hearing.
As before stated, the principal grounds for opposing compensation was the employee’s refusal to have his fractured finger set. This was answered on the part of the
From the evidence on this subject, which was not positive or entirely satisfactory on either side, we think the Industrial Commission would have been justified in finding that the refusal to have the finger set was not the cause of the infection, but that it developed from the original injury. But such a finding was not made. The finding on this point, upon which the award under review rests, is merely that the employee’s disability resulted from the injury. The question is thus presented of whether such a finding, under the circumstances of this case, will support the award without a particular finding upon the subject of the result of the employee’s refusal to submit to the treatment offered him.
Findings of fact by the Industrial Commission are not required by law. Denver & R. G. W. R. R. Co. v. Industrial Comm., 66 Utah 494, 243 P. 800, 803; Moray v. Industrial Comm., 58 Utah 404, 199 P. 1023; Bingham Mines Co. v. Allsop, 59 Utah 306, 203 P. 644. The only requirement is that, when findings are made, they must be supported by competent evidence and must sustain the award. The rules of procedure applicable to trials in courts of law do not govern proceedings before the Industrial Commission. Such proceedings by express law are given a wider latitude.
Upon the issue of whether the employee’s disability resulted from the injury or from his refusal to submit to proper treatment, the finding is that it resulted from the injury. Under the circumstances of the case a particular finding upon the consequences of the refusal to have the fracture set was most appropriate, but it cannot be said that such a finding was required by law. With respect to an analogous situation in Denver & R. G. W. v. IndustriaI Comm., supra, we said: “The further contention that the
From the finding made we must assume that the Industrial Commission rejected the claim of the employer. The award should be affirmed.
Concurring Opinion
I concur in the dissenting opinion of Mr. Chief Justice CHERRY.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- AMERICAN SMELTING & REFINING CO. v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION OF UTAH
- Cited By
- 5 cases
- Status
- Published