Bates & Rogers Construction Co. v. Emmons

• Decision Date: 14 October 1924
• Citation: 205 Ky. 21
• Parties: Bates & Rogers Construction Company v. Emmons.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

205 Ky. 21

Bates & Rogers Construction Company v. Emmons.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

Decided October 14, 1924.

Appeal from Mason Circuit Court.

WORTHINGTON, BROWNING & REED for appellant.

A. D. COLE, H. W. COLE and H. B. BEST for appellee.

OPINION OF THE COURT BY COMMISSIONER HOBSON — Affirming.

On August 6th, 1918, appellee Emmons was in the employment of the appellant at lock and dam 33 on the Ohio river. There was a barge load of rock which they were sending over to the coffer dam and there was a cable wire to carry the bucket when loaded. Emmons, with several others, was shoveling rock into the bucket when the man at the other end undid the rope above and the cable flew up and struck Emmons across the bridge of his nose and left eye. The blow knocked him backwards and blinded him. He was bleeding profusely from the nose and was taken by the company's servant to the company's doctor, Dr. Quigley. Dr. Quigley was out and they then took him to Dr. Taylor, as he was bleeding fast. Dr. Taylor finally corked up his nose so as to stop the flow of blood, but the nose bled for a day and a half. The company paid Dr. Taylor for his services. Emmons stayed off of work four days and when he went back they gave him a job to stand cutting wire off cement sacks and told him not to stoop but to hold himself up and keep as quiet as possible. Up to that time his eyesight was good; after that his left eye gave him trouble and gradually got worse. On July 26, 1919, he filed an application for adjustment of claim before the workmen's compensation board for the injury to his eye. Proof was taken and on final hearing the board dismissed the claim on the ground that notice of the injury had not been given as provided in the statute. Thereupon Emmons filed in the circuit court his petition for review, and on final hearing in that court a judgment was entered that notice of the injury to the appellee's eye was given shortly after the accident and the award of the board dismissing the claim was reversed, with directions to the board to set aside the award and for further proceedings consistent with the opinion of the circuit court. The employer appeals from this judgment.

The statute regulating the matter of notice in these cases is as follows:

"No proceeding under this act for compensation for an injury or death shall be maintained unless a notice of the accident shall have been given to the employer as soon as practicable after the happening thereof and unless a claim for compensation with respect to such injury shall have been made within one year after the date of the accident, or, in case of death, within one year after such death, whether or not claim has been made by the employe himself for compensation. Such notice and such claim may be given or made by any person claiming to be entitled to compensation or by some one in his behalf. If payments of compensation as such have been made voluntarily the making of a claim within such period shall not be required, but shall become requisite following the suspension of such voluntary payments.

"Such notice and such claim shall be in writing and the notice shall contain the name and...