Harper Foundry & Mach. Co. v. Harper
| Decision Date | 03 March 1958 |
| Docket Number | No. 40693,40693 |
| Citation | 100 So.2d 779,232 Miss. 873 |
| Parties | HARPER FOUNDRY AND MACHINE COMPANY v. J. Nolan HARPER. |
| Court | Mississippi Supreme Court |
Lipscomb, Ray & Barksdale, Jackson, for appellant.
Alton Massey, Kosciusko, for appellee.
This case is before us on appeal by Harper Foundry and Machine Company and its insurance carrier from a judgment of the Circuit Court of Hinds County affirming an award of compensation made by the Workmen's Compensation Commission to J. Nolan Harper for injuries incurred as a result of an accident arising out of and in the course of his employment.
The record shows that on March 15, 1956, the claimant J. Nolan Harper, while engaged in the performance of his duties as an employee of Harper Foundry and Machine Company, suffered a burn on his left leg when a spark from a piece of burning slag ignited his trouser leg. The injury was reported immediately to the claimant's foreman. The claimant treated his injury with home remedies for a few days, and on March 19, 1956, consulted Dr. Robert T. Cates in regard to the burn. Dr. Cates found that the burns were first, second and third degree burns. The area of third degree burns did not respond to treatment, and Dr. Cates advised the claimant that it would be necessary to do 'pinch' skin grafts on that area, and instructed the claimant to return to his office on March 28 for that treatment. The claimant reported to Dr. Cates' office on March 28 and prior to the grafting being done Dr. Cates noted that the claimant exhibited symptoms of a heart attack. The claimant was sent immediately to Dr. J. P. Melvin, a specialist in internal medicine, who diagnosed his condition as an acute myocardial infarction. Under the treatment of Dr. Melvin the claimant's condition improved to the point where he was permitted to return to work on July 15, 1956.
On July 12, 1956, the claimant filed an application for compensation benefits under the Workmen's Compensation Law, Code 1942, § 6998.01 et seq., for the disability resulting from the severe burn on his leg and the heart attack.
All of the facts stated above were agreed to, and no testimony was offered to establish the same. It was also admitted that the claimant was 55 years of age; that his average weekly wage at the time of his injury was $100; that he had been under treatment of Dr. Melvin for four or five years for hypertension; and that his duties as an employee of the Harper Foundry and Machine Company were largely of a supervisory nature. The testimony taken before the attorney-referee consisted entirely of the testimony of Dr. Melvin who testified on behalf of the claimant and Dr. J. Manning Hudson who testified on behalf of the employer and the insurance carrier.
As stated by the attorney-referee in his findings of fact, the testimony of Dr. Melvin indicated that the claimant was of a highly nervous disposition, and in Dr. Melvin's opinion the nervous stress occasioned by the anticipated skin graft and the continued treatment of the burn precipitated the heart attack of March 28, 1956. Dr. Melvin estimated the claimant's permanent disability at fifty per cent. Dr. Hudson, a specialist in internal medicine who examined the claimant on May 30, 1956, concurred in the diagnosis of acute myocardial infarction; but Dr. Hudson was of the opinion that the burn of March 15, 1956, was not a direct cause of and had no direct relation to the heart attack of March 28. Dr. Hudson stated, however, that he did not rule out the possibility of the emotional factor of the burn and subsequent treatment as a contributing cause for the heart attack. He estimated the claimant's permanent disability considering the type of work that he was doing at twenty-five per cent.
The record showed that the employer and its insurance carrier had paid to the claimant voluntary compensation for the period beginning March 19, 1956, and ending April 29, 1956; and it was stipulated that claimant's employer had continued to pay to the claimant his regular wage, during all of the period since his injury of March 15. The attorney-referee...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Insurance Dept. of Miss. v. Dinsmore, 40790
...Truck & Tractor Co. v. Spencer, Miss., 87 So.2d 272. Compare Nicholas Co. v. Dodson, Miss., 99 So.2d 666, and Harper Foundry and Machine Co. v. Harper, Miss., 100 So.2d 779. In Cowart v. Pearl River Tung Co., 218 Miss. 472, 67 So.2d 356, 357, the woman suffered a 'massive cerebral vascular ......
-
Forest Constructors, Inc. v. Tadlock
...inability to earn wages must be corroborated in part, but not exclusively by medical findings.' Cf. Harper Foundry and Machine Co. v. Harper, 232 Miss. 873, 100 So.2d 779 (1958). The case is therefore Affirmed. GILLESPIE, JONES, BRADY and PATTERSON, JJ., concur. ...
-
McBride v. Wetmore & Parman, Inc., 41936
...carrier. This Court has held in Thornbrough Well Servicing Co. v. Brown, 223 Miss. 322, 78 So.2d 159, and Harper Foundry and Machine Company v. Harper, 232 Miss. 873, 100 So.2d 779, that in heart cases, such as this, the factual issue of causal relationship is usually one for the medical ex......
-
REDMAN HOMES v. Dependents of Bennington, 1998-WC-01207-COA.
...under similar circumstances. In one case, the claimant sustained burns on his left leg at work. Harper Foundry and Machine Co. v. Harper, 232 Miss. 873, 875-76, 100 So.2d 779 (1958). Several days later, while waiting to undergo a skin graft, he suffered a heart attack. One expert attributed......