Adkins v. Rives Plating Corp.
Decision Date | 27 November 1953 |
Docket Number | No. 81,81 |
Citation | 61 N.W.2d 117,338 Mich. 265 |
Parties | ADKINS v. RIVES PLATING CORP. et al. |
Court | Michigan Supreme Court |
Raymond H. Rapaport, Lansing, for plaintiff and appellee.
Harry F. Briggs, Lansing (Peter Munroe, Lansing, of counsel), for defendants and appellants.
Before the Entire Bench.
Plaintiff Joseph Adkins sustained an injury while in the employ of defendant Rives Plating Corporation on December 15, 1950, which resulted in a fracture of the radius bone of his left forearm. He was paid compensation at $28 per week for total disability from the date of the injury to and including May 30, 1951. He returned to work with lighter duties on May 31, 1951, at which time his compensation ceased because of his partial recovery. Thereafter payments were made to him of wages at the same rate that he formerly earned.
On Sunday, September 9, 1951, plaintiff was involved in an accident while riding a bicycle. That accident and its results are described by Adkins, in his testimony, as follows:
Adkins filed an application for hearing and adjustment of claim on December 24, 1951, in which he stated:
'1. That this claim relates to a personal injury which occurred on or about December 15, 1950, or to a disablement from occupational disease, which occurred on or about * * *
'2. That the injury or disablement occurred at Rives Junction, Jackson, Michigan, and in the following manner: Injuried was buffing, got away from him and struck him on the left forearm; Weekly earnings, $90.00.
Dr. Richard C. Demming and Dr. M. D. Parker treated Adkins for the original fracture of his left arm, and also attended him after his second injury. Dr. Demming testified in part:
'Q. What did you find? A. We opened the radius and at the fracture site I found that actually there had been a little, or no bone union.
'Q. You say had been--you mean prior to the second injury? A. Yes, that the previous fracture had never healed by bony union.
'Q. And what else did you find? A. Oh, that the bone ends were extremely hard, very dense, with an indication that there was a non-union, non-bony union, or a very delayed union.
'Q. Then, from your observation, during the surgery, were you able to form an opinion as to whether or not the fracture, original fracture had healed? A. The original fracture had not healed.
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Dr. Parker's testimony was confined to the treatment following the first injury and his examination of Adkins' condition after the second injury. He stated in part:
The deputy commissioner awarded compensation----
'at the rate of $28.00 per week for total disability from December 16, 1950 to May 30, 1951 and at the rate of $28.00 per week for total disability from September 9, 1951 to December 28, 1951.'
He further found----
An amended award was later filed which included medical and hospital expenses. In affirming these awards the commission, on review, said in part:
Appellant State Accident Fund denies that the plaintiff has suffered any compensable disability since May 30, 1951, or that he is entitled to reimbursement for hospital expenses when he himself did not make such expenditures.
Decision rests primarily upon the implication of the first question, which is atated by the appellee in this manner:
'Where the Workmen's Compensation Commission's finding of fact that there is a causal connection between plaintiff's disability and a compensable accident is supported by competent evidence, should the finding be affirmed by the Supreme Court?'
It is fundamental that the commission is the sole trier of the facts, and that this Court cannot weigh the evidence. See C.L.1948, § 413.12, Stat.Ann.1950 Rev. § 17.186, which reads in part:
'The findings of fact made by the compensation commission acting within its powers, shall, in the absence of fraud, be conclusive, but the supreme court shall have power to review questions of law involved in any final decision or determination of said compensation commission'.
We must, therefore, accept the finding of the commission that the failure of the original injury to heal was the proximate cause of the second fracture, unless that finding is the result of an erroneous application of the law.
The original injury may or may not have been a contributing factor in that it rendered plaintiff susceptible to the second injury, but it cannot be said to be the proximate cause of the disability resulting from the second injury. The proximate cause of the second...
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Sapko v. State , No. 18680.
...Kan. 542, 549, 952 P.2d 411 (1997); Addington Resources, Inc. v. Perkins, 947 S.W.2d 421, 423 (Ky.App.1997); Adkins v. Rives Plating Corp., 338 Mich. 265, 273, 61 N.W.2d 117 (1953); Meils ex rel. Meils v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co., 355 N.W.2d 710, 715 (Minn.1984); Warpinski v. State I......
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Dean v. Chrysler Corp.
...here developed is not out of line with the main body of case law on the subject." Id. See, for example, Adkins v. Rives Plating Corp., 338 Mich. 265, 271, 61 N.W.2d 117 (1953), where we upheld the denial of compensation to a worker who aggravated an industrial injury in a bicycling accident......
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Hagerman v. Gencorp Automotive
...to be health, accident and old age insurance and spread general protection over risks common to all....' " Adkins v. Rives Plating Corp., 338 Mich. 265, 271, 61 N.W.2d 117 (1953); Schaefer v. Williamston Community Schools, 117 Mich.App. 26, 323 N.W.2d 577 (1982). Yet in finding that the wor......
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Sapko v. State
...542, 549, 952 P.2d 411 (1997); Addington Resources, Inc. v. Perkins, 947 S.W.2d 421, 423 (Ky. App. 1997); Adkins v. Rives Plating Corp., 338 Mich. 265, 273, 61 N.W.2d 117 (1953); Meils ex rel. Meils v. Northwestern Bell Telephone Co., 355 N.W.2d 710, 715 (Minn. 1984); Warpinski v. State Ind......