Hamilton Mfg. Co. v. Kern
| Decision Date | 21 December 1970 |
| Docket Number | No. 46006,46006 |
| Citation | 242 So.2d 441 |
| Parties | HAMILTON MFG. CO. and Employers' Mutual Liability Ins. Co. v. Willie L. KERN. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Daniel, Coker, Horton, Bell & Dukes, William Larry Latham, Jackson, for appellants.
Crawley & Ford, David E. Crawley, Jr., Kosciusko, for appellee.
This is a workmen's compensation case, which is appealed from the Circuit Court of Attala County, Mississippi. The circuit court reversed the order of the Workmen's Compensation Commission, which affirmed an order of an attorney referee denying compensation. From that decision this appeal is taken.
Willie L. Kern, appellee, a fifty-five year old male from Kosciusko, Mississippi, made application for benefits under the provisions of the Mississippi Workmen's Compensation Act as a result of an alleged injury received at appellant's place of employment. The injury is alleged to have occurred on April 5, 1968, while the appellee was working as an employee of the above corporation. The appellee's occupation was hand-sanding the products of the appellant. Appellee contends that the injury occurred as he was turning a heavy instructor's desk around on a conveyor belt so that he could sand the opposite end. The desk is on rollers of an assembly line and when the appellant turned the desk he claims that he injured his lower back. The appellee testified that he went to 'the office' to report his injury and was there told to report to his supervisor before leaving work. The appellee did so. The supervisor told him to go see the doctor. However, he went home without seeing the doctor. The appellee remained at his home from April 6 until April 9, 1968. The appellee testified that upon returning to work on April 9, 1968, he tried to work but could not and after two hours of work he reported again to the office and stated, He then returned to his home. The following day, April 10, 1968, the appellee went to see Dr. S. L. Bailey for pain which he described as being 'all the way down from my biggest hip joint.'
Dr. S. L. Bailey testified that he had seen the appellee as a patient since March 17, 1965, when he examined the appellee for a work induction physical for the appellant. Dr. Bailey stated that in March 1966 he examined the appellee for abdominal pain and referred him to the hospital two days later with the diagnosis of a peptic ulcer. Stomach surgery was performed in September 1967 and the appellee had a rather lengthy convalescence, being away from work from September 1967 until March 25, 1968. Dr. Bailey testified that on March 19, 1968, some eighteen days prior to the date of the alleged accident, the appellee complained of back pain and that he prescribed medication for this back pain. Dr. Bailey continued to see and treat the patient until June 17, 1968, for the pain in his back. $On July 11, 1968, the appellee was examined by Dr. Robert R. Smith at the Univerity Hospital in Jackson, Mississippi. Dr. Smith testified that he felt the appellee had a ruptured disc and that when he again saw the appellee on September 12, 1968, he performed a myelogram which showed a mid line defect at L 4-5 which was interpreted to be a ruptured disc. Dr. Smith estimated the appellee's disability at thirty percent permanent partial disability.
The personnel manager of the appellant, William C. Reeves, and the appellee's supervisor, Lee Samuel Luke, Testified that the appellee reported to them on April 5 that he was sick but that no specific complaint as to any injury was received by either of them. Two of the appellee's coworkers, Wardell Dotson and Benny Harris, who worked in close proximity to the appellee, testified that the appellee made no complaint to either of them at any time about being injured. However, a third co-employee, Tyree Huddleston, on rebuttal testified that the appellee told him on April 9, 1968, that he had hurt his back while he was working.
Finally, two of the appellee's brothers testified that appellee was in St. Louis, Missouri, on March 19, 1968, the date that Dr. Bailey testified he was treating the appellee. Hunter Meek, a registered pharmacist in Kosciusko, testified that he filled Dr. Bailey's prescriptions which were dated April 10, 1968, the first day the appellee saw the doctor subsequent to the alleged accident.
On June 23, 1969, the attorney referee, after hearing all the testimony upon this application, found that 'the claimant, Willie L. Kern, did not suffer an injury within the course and scope of his employment on April 5, 1968.' From the adverse finding...
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Davis v. Scotch Plywood Co. of Mississippi, 56366
...where the same is conflicting in substantial particulars and to determine where the preponderance lies. See, e.g., Hamilton Mfg. Co. v. Kern, 242 So.2d 441, 444 (Miss.1970); Hemphill Drug Co. v. Mann, 274 So.2d 117, 119 The burden of proof was on Davis to establish his disability. American ......
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Penrod Drilling Co. v. Etheridge
...it. [emphasis added] Id. at 579. The facts of the Fowler case are strikingly similar to the case at hand. Also in Hamilton Manufacturing Co. v. Kern, 242 So.2d 441 (Miss.1970), the circuit court had reversed the order denying compensation and the Supreme Court reversed the circuit court. In......
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White v. Superior Products, Inc., 56663
...with reason finds claimant's testimony untrustworthy or incredible, the Commission has authority to reject it. Hamilton Manufacturing Co. v. Kern, 242 So.2d 441, 444 (Miss.1970); Hill v. United Timber & Lumber Co., 68 So.2d 420, 423 (Miss.1953); V. Dunn, Mississippi Workers Compensation Sec......
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Ellis v. SALEM SPORTSWEAR MFG.
...in circumstances which demonstrate a lack of trustworthiness or that which is incredible. White, 515 So.2d at 927; Hamilton Mfg. Co. v. Kern, 242 So.2d 441, 444 (Miss.1970); Hill v. United Timber & Lumber Co., 68 So.2d 420, 423 (Miss.1953); V. Dunn, Mississippi Workers' Compensation § 271 (......