Gunnerson v. Kansas City Structural Steel Co.
| Decision Date | 29 March 1976 |
| Docket Number | No. KCD,KCD |
| Citation | 535 S.W.2d 585 |
| Parties | Donald Dean GUNNERSON, Respondent, v. KANSAS CITY STRUCTIONAL STEEL COMPANY, and Royal Indemnity Company, Appellants. 28086. |
| Court | Missouri Court of Appeals |
Harold J. Maddox, Kansas City, for appellants.
Arthur H. Stoup, Thomas E. Thompson, Kansas City, for respondent.
Before TURNAGE, P.J., and WELBORN and HIGGINS, Special Judges.
Workmen's Compensation proceeding. Referee of Division of Workmen's Compensation found for employee and awarded 30 weeks of temporary total disability at $63.50 per week and 340 weeks of permanent partial disability at $58.00 per week. The Labor and Industrial Relations Commission affirmed the award of the referee. The award was in turn affirmed by the Jackson County Circuit Court.
Donald Dean Gunnerson was employed by Kansas City Structural Steel Company as an ironworker. On December 27, 1969, he was working on the installation of an exhaust fan on the roof of a building at the Sheffield-Armco Plant in Kansas City. Gunnerson was working at the apex of a V-shaped metal roof. He had been lifted some 80 feet to the eaves of the roof on a 'headache ball.' From that point he climbed to the apex of the roof what the aid of a rope.
Gunnerson had been on the roof for about two hours when around 2:00 or 2:30 P.M. he had to go to the restroom. Rain which had been falling earlier had turned to sleet and the roof was icy. So was the rope and Gunnerson decided not to try to go down it to the eaves. Instead, he started to walk across the sloping roof to the end of the building where there was a handrail and stairs. While walking about halfway between the eaves and the apex, he started sliding down the roof. He went to his knees in an effort to get hold of something to stop his sliding. He found nothing to hold so he lay down on his stomach and spread out in an effort to stop. He continued to slide and lost consciousness before he slid over the eaves. He fell to the roof of a lean-to. He was taken off the roof by the crane operator. His hard hat was cracked for about 1 1/2 inches by the impact of the fall.
He was taken by ambulance to St. Joseph Hospital where he was found to have injuries to his head, neck, left arm, leg and buttocks. He was hospitalized for three days. The discharge diagnosis was: Cerebral concussion and Renal contusion. He was off work for about a week following his discharge from the hospital.
On February 12, 1970, he was readmitted to St. Joseph Hospital, complaining of a 'tight' feeling in his left arm, back and left leg pain and neck pain. He received physiotherapy treatment and on his discharge February 21 was provided with a neck brace.
Because of various problems connected with his injuries and the treatment, he worked only about 50% of the time between March, 1970 and July 3, 1970, when he was again hospitalized for the same complaint, this time at Research Hospital. He received physiotherapy and was treated by traction. Upon his discharge July 21, he was provided a back brace and a traction device for use at home. For three or four months, he was unable to work because of headaches and pain in his back, arm and leg.
Following his second hospitalization, Gunnerson had problems with shaking while he was working and lost one job because fellow-employees complained that he was shaking the scaffolding on which they were working. By November, 1970, he was having emotional difficulties, evidenced by difficulty in getting along with fellow-employees and his wife and children. He began to have difficulty holding a job more than a week or two at a time. He would either be terminated by the employer or quit work to avoid a fight. He became frightened by heights and it became difficult for him to get up on ladders and scaffolds. His weight dropped from around 210 to 165 or 175 pounds. He was unable to work for more than half the time.
In March, 1971, Gunnerson's attorney arranged for his client to visit Dr. George J. Lytton, a psychiatrist. Based upon his interview with the patient and subsequent psychological testing, Doctor Lytton concluded that Gunnerson was suffering from a depressive reaction caused by his December, 1969 fall. Doctor Lytton offered no treatment and did not see Gunnerson again for more than a year. Gunnerson did not keep an appointment with Doctor Lytton in April, 1972. In May, arrangements were made for Mrs. Gunnerson to visit Doctor Lytton and she told him of the difficulties she was having with her husband. Doctor Lytton saw Mr. Gunnerson on May 6, 1972. At that time the claimant was 'profoundly depressed, blue and gloomy.' Doctor Lytton again concluded that he was suffering from a depressive reaction.
In July, 1972, claimant's wife filed for divorce, alleging that her husband had 'slapped her around' and threatened her with physical harm. A divorce was granted in October, 1972.
On October 13, 1972, Gunnerson was readmitted to Research Hospital, 'visibly shaking' and complaining of headaches and back pain. He was discharged on October 18, with a primary diagnosis of 'back pain of questionable etiology.'
On October 27, 1972, he was again seen by Doctor Lytton, to whom he complained of inability to sleep, inability to work and loss of weight. Doctor Lytton again concluded that he was suffering from depressive reaction which had become more severe.
Doctor Lytton saw claimant next on March 16, 1973. His complaints were similar to those previously voiced and Doctor Lytton concluded that the patient's depression was becoming accelerated. He expressed a similar view following a visit on June 20, 1973. Following this visit Doctor Lytton recommended psychiatric treatment at an estimated cost of $5,000 'to halt this deterioration.'
On September 4, 1973, Gunnerson stopped by Doctor Lytton's office and left a note which the doctor considered 'strongly suicidal.' He arranged for the claimant's hospitalization at Research.
In June, 1973, Gunnerson had been seen in psychiatric evaluation by Doctor Bidwell, a psychiatrist for the employer-insurer. Doctor Bidwell saw Gunnerson several times thereafter, and, after the September, 1973 hospitalization at Research, Doctor Lytton got in touch with Doctor Bidwell who arranged for the patient to be transferred to Menorah Hospital under Doctor Bidwell's care. Because Gunnerson did not wish to remain in the hospital, he was discharged and continued to see Doctor Bidwell as an outpatient. In a psychiatric evaluation, dated July 5, 1973, following Gunnerson's June visit and neuropsychological testing, Doctor Bidwell concluded:
Gunnerson's workmen's compensation claim was heard by a referee of the division in January, 1974. In addition to the medical and psychiatric record of Gunnerson's care and treatment following the December, 1969 fall, the claimant and his former wife testified to personality changes, manifested in various ways. Doctors Lytton and Bidwell appeared as witnesses and both asserted the conclusion stated in this report that the claimant's psychiatric problems had been precipitated by the fall. The employer-insurer offered no contradictory medical or psychiatric evidence, but sought by cross-examination of the claimant and the witnesses produced by him to relate the psychiatric problems to the claimant's rejection by his natural parents. The employer-insurer's cross-examination attempted to show that claimant was emotionally unstable prior to the fall.
The referee made the following findings:
'I find and believe from all of the credible evidence that the employee, Donald Dean Gunnerson, sustained an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment with the employer, Kansas City Structural Steel Company, when on or about December 27, 1969, in Kansas City, Jackson County, Missouri, he was working on the job on the roof of a building and while walking across the roof of said building to go to the restroom he slipped and fell and then slid down said roof to a point where he fell off of said roof and landed on the roof of a lean-to adjacent to and a part of said main building.
'I further find and believe from all of the credible evidence that as a direct and proximate result of said accident he sustained injuries to his head, neck, back, left arm and psyche.'
These findings were affirmed by the Labor and Industrial Relations Commission and the circuit court.
On this appeal, the first contention of the appellants, employer and insurer, is that the award was beyond the powers of the Commission because it was based upon injury to the 'psyche' which was neither pleaded nor proved.
Appellants acknowledge that, on April 4, 1973, the respondent's claim, originally filed in February, 1970, and referring only to injuries of an orthopedic nature, was amended to allege that, as a result of the fall, he had suffered a 'depressive reaction.' A depressive reaction is a condition involving the mind. The words 'mind' and 'psyche' are synonymous. Webster's Third New International Dictionary (1966). The referee's use of the term 'psyche' was obviously intended to refer to the portion of the body which had sustained injury. Appellants acknowledge that the issue of a depressive reaction was tried before the referee. The evidence clearly supported the conclusion that claimant had suffered a depressive reaction.
The conclusion of an injury to the 'psyche' was obviously a finding by the referee on the depressive reaction aspect of the claim, and was within the scope of the claim which had been presented on that basis.
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...343, 344-45 (Mo.App.1985); Matthews v. Roadway Express, Inc., 660 S.W.2d 768, 771 (Mo.App.1983); Gunnerson v. Kansas City Structural Steel Co., 535 S.W.2d 585, 591-92 (Mo.App.1976); Todd v. Goostree, 493 S.W.2d 411, 417, 421 (Mo.App.1973); Oder v. St. Joe Minerals Corp., 484 S.W.2d 487, 497......