Copeland v. Black
| Decision Date | 30 January 1959 |
| Docket Number | No. 6460,6460 |
| Parties | W. N. COPELAND, Appellant, v. Byron BLACK and Equitable Fire & Marine Insurance Company, Appellees. |
| Court | New Mexico Supreme Court |
Hartley, Buzzard & Patton, Clovis, for appellant.
Gore & Nieves, Clovis, for appellees.
This is an appeal from the District Court of Curry County dismissing claimant's action, and holding that it was barred by the statute of limitations. No doubt the learned trial judge felt compelled by the legislative directive of Section 59-10-13 of 1953 Compilation to dismiss said cause of action because the claimant failed to prove that the employer, his supervisor or foreman had actual knowledge of the alleged accident and resulting injury; and, further, that claimant failed to give his employer written notice as provided by the above section, which reads as follows:
There is but one material question argued by counsel, viz.: whether the trial court erred in dismissing the claimant's action for the reasons hereinabove stated.
We are not unmindful that our Workmen's Compensation Act is to be liberally construed in favor of claimant. See Gonzales v. Chino Copper Co., 29 N.M. 228, 222 P. 903; Stevenson v. Lee Moor Contracting Co., 45 N.M. 354, 115 P.2d 342; Lipe v. Bradbury, 49 N.M. 4, 154 P.2d 1000. But liberal construction does not mean total disregard for the statute, or repeal of it under the guise of construction. See Martin v. White Pine Lumber Co., 34 N.M. 483, 284 P. 115.
That the notice must be in writing is for certainty; that it is to be given within thirty days after the occurrence of the accident and injury is to enable the employer to examine into the facts while they are accessible and also to employ skilled physicians or surgeons to care for the employee so as to speed his recovery and protect himself against simulated or exaggerated claims. See Ogletree v. Jones, 44 N.M. 567, 106 P.2d 302.
According to testimony of the claimant, while lifting a steel beam to place it across two wooden horses for the purpose of bolting to it two by four inch wooden planks, on February 2, 1957, he felt a sharp pain in his left abdomen...
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Montell v. Orndorff
...to establish the causal connection between the injury and the result. The employer relies upon our decision in Copeland v. Black, 1959, 65 N.M. 214, 334 P.2d 1116, which arose out of a situation very like that before us now and where we held the notice to be insufficient. That case emphasiz......
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State ex rel. Kermac Nuclear Fuels Corp. v. Larrazolo
...notice had not been timely given. To the same effect are Sanchez v. Bernalillo County, 57 N.M. 217, 257 P.2d 909, and Copeland v. Black, 65 N.M. 214, 334 P.2d 1116. Selgado v. New Mexico State Highway Department, 66 N.M. 369, 348 P.2d 487, also arrived at the same conclusion in a case invol......
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Lozano v. Archer
...to care for the employee so as to speed his recovery and protect himself against simulated or exaggerated claims. Copeland v. Black, 65 N.M. 214, 334 P.2d 1116. In this case, we have the additional fact of the acknowledgment by the employer of notice of claimant's With respect to Point II, ......
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Yardman v. Cooper
...Steam Laundry v. State Industrial Comm., 160 Okl. 107, 16 P.2d 92.' Very recently this court decided the case of Copeland v. Black, 65 N.M. 214, 334 P.2d 1116, 1118, wherein, according to the testimony of the claimant, while lifting a beam to place across wooden horses for the purpose of bo......