Blazier v. Georgia Pac. Corp.

• Decision Date: 16 October 1974
• Docket Number: No. 4703,GEORGIA-PACIFIC,4703
• Citation: 301 So.2d 701
• Parties: Norma J. BLAZIER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v.CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Louisiana — District of US

Page 701

301 So.2d 701

Norma J. BLAZIER, Plaintiff-Appellee, v. GEORGIA-PACIFIC CORPORATION, Defendant-Appellant.

No. 4703.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Third Circuit.

Oct. 16, 1974.

Joseph Wilson of Gaharan & Richey, Jena, for defendant-appellant.

Long & Peters, by Jimmie C. Peters, Jena, for plaintiff-appellee.

Before FRUGE , HOOD, DOMENGEAUX, JJ.

HOOD, Judge.

This is a workmen's compensation suit instituted by Mrs. Norma J. Blazier against Georgia-Pacific Corporation. The trial judge rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff, and defendant has appealed.

This issues presented are whether plaintiff sustained an injury as the result of a work-connected accident, and if so, whether there is a causal relationship between her present disability and that accident.

Plaintiff contends that she injured her back on February 28, 1972, while she was working as a veneer grader for defendant. Her duties required her to assist in pulling thin sheets of veneer wood, about 8 feet long and 4 feet wide, onto a roller cart or table. Ordinarily three women worked together at one table in performing that operation, but on the above mentioned date Kathryne Ates, one of the women who usually worked with her at the table, was absent, and plaintiff and the other person who worked at that table, Billie Marie Wilson, were performing the work usually done by three employees. Plaintiff stated that the veneer sheets were wet and were unusually heavy on that day, and that for those reasons and the fact that they were short handed, it was necessary for her to work harder on the day she was injured.

Mrs. Blazier testified that before noon n February 28, while she was pulling a wet, heavy sheet of veneer, she suddenly experienced a severe pain in her back, and that she immediately told her co-worker Billie Marie Wilson, about it. She continued to work with pain the rest of that day and the next day, and she stated that she told her other co-worker, Kathryne Ates, about it on March 1. The pain became so severe on March 1, she said, that she called her supervisor that evening and told him that she would not be able to report for work the next day because of back pain, and that her back had started hurting her while at work. She did not return to work on March 2, and she has performed no work since that time.

Mrs. Blazier's husband and daughter support her testimony that she complained of severe back pain during the night of February 28, and that she has complained of back pain continuously since that time.

Plaintiff went to her own physician, Dr. Bernard E. Doughty, a general practitioner, on March 6 and was treated by him for her back condition from that date until about August 24, 1972. Dr. Doughty had treated plaintiff before the above accident allegedly occurred for a bladder infection which caused her to suffer back pain. He stated that she complained of back pain on March 6, 1972, but that she did not give him a history of an accident or trauma. No x-rays were taken, and his clinical examination was negative as to back injury. He concluded from plaintiff's subjective symptoms that she was suffering pain in her back, however, and he referred her to Dr. Roy H. Ledbetter, Jr., an orthopaedic surgeon, in June, 1972. Dr. Doughty made no diagnosis of plaintiff's condition, but in the first report he submitted on March 9, 1972, he described her condition as 'Low back pain aggravated by lifting at work and by bending,' although he stated in the same report that her injury did not arise out of her employment. He testified that it was 'possible' that her pain was related to a very deep back strain.

Dr. Doughty submitted reports to the defendant-employer each week from March 20 until September 5, 1972. In those reports he showed that Mrs. Blazier had been continuously disabled from work since March 1, 1972, and that it was 'indefinite' or 'undetermined' when she would be able to return to work again. He described her condition in those reports as being 'low back pain,' as 'chronic lumbosacral strain, with possible recurrent lumbar disc herniation,' and as 'chronic lumbosacral strain.'

Dr. Ledbetter examined plaintiff initially on June 28, 1972, and he treated her for about one year thereafter. The history which he received was that the onset of plaintiff's symptoms occurred while she was at work, although plaintiff explained that she did not slip or fall and that she was not subjected to violent trauma. He found that plaintiff had a slight narrowing of the disc space at the lumbosacral joint, between L5 and the first sacral segment, and he concluded following his initial examination that plaintiff 'had experienced a lumbosacral strain which at that time had become chronic,' and that he 'could not exclude the possibility of there being a disc condition or herniation of the disc.' He described her condition as a 'mild recurrent disc herniation or protrusion,' and as a 'mild and recurring disc bulge or protrusion superimposed and in conjunction with the back strain.' He testified that 'this condition can occur as a gradual deterioration and weakening of the ligaments which controls and which encircles and confines the disc to its normal space, or it can occur as a result of a single injury or as a result of repeated injuries. . . . so this is not necessarily a condition which is produced by accident or violant trauma, but it can be.' He stated that a disc injury can be caused by a sudden twist of the body, and that it is possible that 'the whole sequence was initiated' by such an occurrence, although he feels that that would not be the only cause of her present disability. He concluded, finally, that:

'I think this lady falls into the category of gradual...