Special Indem. Fund v. Michaud
| Decision Date | 27 October 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 37609,37609 |
| Parties | SPECIAL INDEMNITY FUND of the State of Oklahoma, administered by the State Insurance Fund, Petitioner, v. Delbert P. MICHAUD and the State Industrial Commission, Respondents. |
| Court | Oklahoma Supreme Court |
Syllabus by the Court.
The right to compensation under the Workmen's Compensation Law of this State and the obligation to pay such compensation are alike vested and fixed under and by virtue of the provisions of the law existing at the time of the injury.
Original proceedings by Special Indemnity Fund to review an award of the State Industrial Commission as against it and in favor of Delbert P. Michaud, Claimant. Award vacated.
Mont R. Powell, Mary Elizabeth Cox, Oklahoma City, for petitioner.
Mac Q. Williamson, Atty. Gen., Richard M. Huff, Asst. Atty. Gen., for respondents.
On November 22, 1955, Delbert P. Michaud, hereinafter referred to as claimant, filed a claim for compensation against his employer, Standard Roofing and Material Company, hereinafter referred to as the Fund, stating that on December 1, 1954, while in the employ of respondent he sustained an accidental injury consisting of an injury to his right eye resulting in complete loss of vision in that eye; that he was then a physically-impaired person by reason of a prior accident sustained by him resulting in permanent partial loss of hearing in both ears.
On the 20th day of December, 1955, the State Industrial Commission entered an award in favor of claimant against respondent for the injury sustained on December 1, 1954, in the sum of $2800.00 because of loss of sight in his right eye and reserved the case for further hearing as against the Fund.
On November 5, 1956, the case came on to be heard against the Fund. The trial judge at that hearing found that on December 1, 1954, claimant suffered an accidental personal injury in the course of his hazardous employment with respondent resulting in 100 percent loss of vision of the right eye; that prior thereto claimant sustained 40 percent loss of hearing in the left ear and 20 percent loss of hearing in the right ear, by reason of which he was a physically-impaired person within the meaning of the Workmen's Compensation Law, and that such impairment was obvious to a layman; that by reason of the combination of said injuries claimant is now 37.5 percent permanently disabled, to the body as a whole, for the performance of ordinary manual labor, or an increase of 5.5 percent over and above all deductions allowed by law, for which he is entitled to recover from the Special Indemnity Fund the sum of $770, being 27.5 weeks at $28 per week. Upon such findings the trial judge entered an award in favor of claimant and against the Fund for $770.
The Fund brings the case here for review and contends that there is a total lack of evidence tending to show that claimant was a physically-impaired person at the time he sustained his present or last injury and the Commission was therefore without authority to enter an award against it.
In 85 O.S.1951 § 171, a physically-impaired person is defined as follows:
'For the purpose of this Act, the term 'physically impaired person' is hereby defined to be a person who as a result of accident, disease, birth, military action, or any other cause, has suffered the loss of the...
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...see note 4, supra; Special Indemnity Fund v. Choate, see note 8, infra; Knott v. Halliburton Services, see note 4, supra; Special Indemnity Fund v. Michaud, 1959 OK 203, ¶ 0, 345 P.2d 8. Multiple Injury Trust Fund v. Pullum, 2001 OK 115, ¶ 9, 37 P.3d 899; Samman v. Multiple Injury Trust Fun......
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