Cook v. Roland T. Romrell Co.

• Decision Date: 23 December 1965
• Docket Number: No. 9515,9515
• Citation: 409 P.2d 104,90 Idaho 155
• Parties: Lloyd A. COOK, Employee, Claimant-Respondent, v. ROLAND T. ROMRELL COMPANY, Employer, and Liberty National Insurance Company (now Guaranty National Insurance Co.), Surety, Defendants-Appellants, and Idaho Falls Sheet Metal Company, Employer, and Industrial Indemnity Company, Surety, Defendants-Appellants.
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

Page 104

409 P.2d 104

90 Idaho 155

Lloyd A. COOK, Employee, Claimant-Respondent, v. ROLAND T. ROMRELL COMPANY, Employer, and Liberty National Insurance Company (now Guaranty National Insurance Co.), Surety, Defendants-Appellants, and Idaho Falls Sheet Metal Company, Employer, and Industrial Indemnity Company, Surety, Defendants-Appellants.

No. 9515.

Supreme Court of Idaho.

Dec. 23, 1965.

Coughlan & Imhoff, Boise, for Romrell Co. and Liberty Nat. Ins. Co.

Richards, Haga & Eberle, Boise, for Idaho Falls Sheet Metal Co. and Industrial Indemnity Co.

Sharp, Anderson & Bush, Idaho Falls, for respondent.

McQUADE, Chief Justice.

In January 1963 Lloyd A. Cook, claimant-respondent herein, incurred a back injury caused by an accident arising out of and in the course of his employement by Roland T. Romrell Company, his employer, defendant-appellant herein. Cook was unable to return to work immediately thereafter and, because he was suffering from severe back pains, contacted a neurological surgeon, Dr. Bernson, in Salt Lake City, Utah. He visited Dr. Bernson's office four or five days after the accident, at which time Dr. Bernson considered Cook's condition to be sufficiently serious to have him admitted to a hospital as an emergency patient. An operation was performed on Cook's lower back to remove a herniated disc. Dr. Bernson also removed a large amount of disc material which had not been removed in a prior operation on another herniated disc.

On February 18, 1963, Cook sneezed and immediately experienced numbness of his right leg. He called Dr. Bernson, who suggested bed rest and heat treatment. Shortly thereafter Cook began experiencing pain in his back and leg. On March 17, 1963, the pain became 'excruciatingly severe'; Cook returned to Salt Lake City and Dr. Bernson again admitted him to the hospital as an emergency patient. Dr. Bernson performed another operation, at which time he removed a moderate-sized fragment of disc material which he had not observed in the previous operation.

Cook thereafter filed a claim for compensation, naming as defendants his employer and its surety, Liberty National Insurance Company (now Guaranty National Insurance Company), both of which are appellants herein, and also his previous employer, Idaho Falls Sheet Metal Company, and its surety, Industrial Indemnity Company, also appellants herein.

Cook's medical history reveals that in 1960 he suffered an industrial accident which necessitated an operation on his back. Dr. Barnard, who performed the operation, removed a herniated disc, part of which remained in Cook's back, however, until its removal by Dr. Bernson in his first operation on Cook in January 1963. At the time Cook incurred the 1960 injury, he was employed by Idaho Falls Sheet Metal Company.

The record reveals that prior to the 1960 injury, Cook, while working for Idaho Falls Sheet Metal Company, had seven industrial accidents which resulted in injuries to various parts of his back. These injuries all were treated by a chiropractor, whose fees were paid by the surety. On four of the occasions Cook lost no time from work, twice he lost no more than three days, and once he was off work for two weeks. Cook apparently received no treatment for those injuries other than that performed by the chiropractor. The reports of the chiropractor, including his diagnoses and treatments for each of Cook's accidents, were made a part of the record.

The Industrial Accident Board, on the basis of the expert medical testimony of Dr. Bernson, found that the expenses for Cook's medical treatment necessitated by the 1963 injury were incurred on an 'emergency basis, obviating the necessity for prior authorization by the defendants, or any of them, pursuant to Idaho Code, 72-307.' ¹ On the basis of the testimony of both Drs. Bernson and Barnard, the Board apportioned one-third of its award to the 1960 accident (to be paid by Industrial Indemnity Company) and two-thirds to the 1963 accident (to be paid by Guaranty National Insurance Company). It also found:

'* * * that there is no competent evidence in the record from which the Board properly can find that any of such conditions, or the disability resulting therefrom, was caused or contributed to in any measurable degree by the pre-1960 episodes, or any of them, or from any activity, incident or episode other than the injustrial accidents which occurred on or about May 20, 1960 and on or about January 24, 1963.'

Both appellants Romrell Company and Idaho Falls Sheet Metal Company and their respective sureties assign error to the Board's failure to apportion part of Cook's injuries to his pre-1960 accidents; its failure to make specific findings...