Consol. Coal Co. of St. Louis v. Indus. Comm'n

• Decision Date: 16 December 1924
• Docket Number: No. 16182.,16182.
• Citation: Consol. Coal Co. of St. Louis v. Indus. Comm'n, 314 Ill. 526, 145 N.E. 675 (Ill. 1924)
• Parties: CONSOLIDATED COAL CO. OF ST. LOUIS v. INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

314 Ill. 526

145 N.E. 675

CONSOLIDATED COAL CO. OF ST. LOUIS

v.INDUSTRIAL COMMISSION et al.

No. 16182.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Dec. 16, 1924.

Error to Circuit Court, Williamson County; D. T. Hartwell, Judge.

Petition by the Consolidated Coal Company of St. Louis, employer, to the Industrial Commission, to reduce an award to Tony Schragal, employee, under the Workmen's Compensation Act. The judgment of the Circuit Court affirmed, on certiorari, the order of the Commission denying the petition, and the employer brings error.

Affirmed.

Ed. M. Spiller, of Marion (A. P. Wodraska, of St. Louis, Mo., of counsel), for plaintiff in error.

A. W. Kerr, of Chicago, and George R. Stone, of Marion, for defendant in error.

HEARD, J.

Tony Schragal, the defendant in error, made application to the Industrial Commission for compensation, claiming that he was injured by reason of an accident which arose out of and in the course of his employment as a coal loader, while working for plaintiff in error, and was given an award against plaintiff in error for $14 a week for 12 4/7 weeks for temporary total incapacity for work, the further sum of $10.03 per week for a period of 200 weeks, and $9.27 for 197 weeks further for partial incapacity. Thereafter plaintiff in error filed a petition under paragraph (h) of section 19 of the Workmen's Compensation Act (Smith-Hurd Rev. St. 1923, c. 48, § 156), claiming, in substance, that the injury of defendant in error had diminished and decreased. A hearing was had on the petition before the Industrial Commission, and the prayer of plaintiff in error's petition denied. The circuit court of Williamson county reviewed, on certiorari, the order of the Industrial Commission and confirmed it. The record is now before this court on writ of error.

The evidence upon which the original award was based, and which is a part of the record upon this hearing, shows that during the year prior to the injury defendant in error worked 153 days, mining 1,758 tons of coal, and earned thereby $1,584.42, or an average daily earning of $10.35. The evidence in the present record is very meager, and consists of a wage statement showing that from July 15, 1921, to February 15, 1922, defendant in error worked 101 7/8 days as a timberman, at a fixed rate of $7.50 per day, during which time the mine worked 76 days-the time which defendant in error could have worked, had he been employed as a loader, as he was prior to the accident. The evidence...