Jennings v. C. M. & W. Drilling Co.

• Decision Date: 19 February 1957
• Docket Number: No. 2775,2775
• Citation: 77 Wyo. 69,307 P.2d 122
• Parties: Dwaine M. JENNINGS, Employee-Claimant and Respondent, v. C. M. & W. DRILLING COMPANY, Employer-Defendant and Appellant.
• Court: Wyoming Supreme Court

Page 122

307 P.2d 122

77 Wyo. 69

Dwaine M. JENNINGS, Employee-Claimant and Respondent, v. C. M. & W. DRILLING COMPANY, Employer-Defendant and Appellant.

No. 2775.

Supreme Court of Wyoming.

Feb. 19, 1957.

Henry A. Burgess, Sheridan, for appellant.

No appearance was made for employee-claimant and respondent.

Mr. Chief Justice BLUME delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a workmen's compensation case involving the question of whether or not the claim of an employee can be established by hearsay evidence.

On or about August 1, 1955, Dwaine M. Jennings, herein called the employee, was employed by the C. M. & W. Drilling Company, a Colorado corporation, herein called the employer, upon its rotary oil rig working north of Sheridan, Wyoming. The duties of the employee consisted of watching the motors and equipment as the drill stem pipe went into or out of the hole and working a set of tongs in the unscrewing of sections of pipe coming out of the hole and screwing together the sections of pipe as they went into the hole.

The employee contends he was injured on or about August 1, 1955, by the tongs slipping and slapping the back of his hand and this slipping and slapping occurred several times and as a result his hand became swollen. After work on August 1 or 2, 1955, the employee went to Dr. Carr, who did not find any fracture. About August 7 or 8, 1955, he returned to work where he remained until August 15, 1955, when his hand troubled him again. The employee went to Dr. Pratt, who found what he thought was a small fracture without displacement in one of the wrist bones of the right hand and applied a cast. Following removal of the cast on September 14, 1955, Dr. Pratt removed a ganglion cyst from the wrist. The employee thereafter consulted Dr. Whiston of Casper, Wyoming, who sent him to the County Memorial Hospital at Sheridan, Wyoming, and subsequently released him.

Following the release of the employee from medical treatment, the employer was notified that an award of $2,040 would be made to the employee. The employer contested this award and a trial was had on June 6, 1956. The trial court found a permanent partial disability of 60% of the use of the employee's right hand, and gave judgment against the employer in favor of the employee for $2,040. Part of the payment was to be in a lump sum and part payable monthly. The only testimony to establish the extent of the injury was that of the employee who, over the objection of appellant, stated that Dr. Whiston told him that his disability was to the extent of 60% of the use of his right arm.

The employer has taken an appeal from this judgment to this court, assigning as error the insufficiency of the evidence to support the judgment and that the judgment is contrary to the evidence and to the law, particularly in that the court erred in admitting in evidence the testimony of the employee concerning what Dr. Whiston told him regarding the extent of his injury.

Counsel for appellant states in his brief that the trial court 'took the view that the rules of evidence should be relaxed to allow the employee to testify as to what a doctor had told him and then the burden was on the employer to rebut such testimony by medical evidence.'

The burden to establish proof of the claim of the employee was upon him. Thus it is said in 71 C.J. § 866, p. 1062:

'Following the rule in common law actions for personal injuries, and in civil actions generally, the burden of proof is on the compensation claimant to prove his case in all its parts by a preponderance of the evidence, notwithstanding the statutory presumption as to existence of facts necessary to give jurisdiction of the claim, or the statutory provision authorizing a liberal construction of the act.'

The authorities seem to agree on this point. See 58 Am.Jur. § 433, p. 856, and numerous cases cited in the Decennial and General Digests, Workmen's Compensation, k1339. It follows that the burden to establish the extent or degree of partial disability was upon the employee. Thus it is said in 58 Am.Jur. § 440, p. 860:

'The burden rests upon the claimant to show the extent of the injury, disability, or loss of earning power complained of.'

And in 71 C.J. § 881, p. 1070, it is stated:

'The burden rests upon the employee to prove the facts as to the character and extent of the injury justifying, under the terms of the statute, an award in the amount that he seeks, whether it be for a total disability, permanent or temporary, or for a permanent or temporary partial disability.'

As mentioned above the only testimony showing the extent of the injury of the employee was that of the claimant herein when he stated Dr. Whiston told him that the extent of the disability of the arm was 60%. That, of course, was clearly hearsay testimony, and was objected to by appellant as such. A statement, written or otherwise, by a person not summoned as a witness and made subject to cross-examination is inadmissible as hearsay, except in certain cases which are exceptions to that rule, but which are not applicable in the case at bar. Seals v. United States, 5 Cir., 70 F.2d 519; Eikel v. Voris, D.C., 101 F.Supp. 963; Williams v. Laclede-Christy Clay Products Co., Mo.App., 227 S.W.2d 507. The question before us then is whether or not this was sufficient and competent testimony to sustain the award made herein. We think not.

In some of the states statutes have been enacted to the effect that the workmen's compensation commission shall not be bound by common law or statutory or technical rules of evidence. 2 Schneider, Workmen's Compensation Law, 2d Ed., § 508, p. 1757, and 58 Am.Jur., § 445, p. 863. It has been held that under such statutes hearsay evidence is admissible within certain limits. We need not examine in detail what these limits are. Suffice it to say here that it would seem hearsay testimony alone is not sufficient to establish any of the important and vital issues in the case. See full discussion in 71 C.J. § 912, p. 1079, and see cases on the subject in Decennial and General Digests under Workmen's Compensation, k1385. In the case of Garfield Smelting Co. v. Industrial Commission of Utah, 53 Utah 133, 178 P. 57, 63, for instance, the court said as follows:

'We, however, agree with the New York Court of Appeals, as expressed in [Carroll v. Knickerbocker Ice Co.], 218 N.Y. 439, 113 N.E. 507, Ann.Cas.1918B, 540, that although the commission in its investigations may have recourse to hearsay evidence to assist it at arriving at the real facts, yet when it makes its findings every finding of fact must be based on some substantial legal and competent evidence. In other words, every material finding that is entirely based on hearsay or other incompetent evidence is not supported by substantial evidence, and cannot be permitted to stand if seasonably and properly assailed. This, it seems to us, is the only reasonable and practical construction that should be placed on the Industrial Act when considered as a whole, as it must be.'

In Southern Stevedoring Co. v. Voris, 5 Cir., 190 F.2d 275, 277, the court stated:

'Although administrative agencies may be relieved from observance of strict common law rules of evidence, their hearings must still be conducted consistently with fundamental principles which inhere in due process of law. * * *

'By admitting these ex parte statements, upon which the deputy commissioner apparently based his decision, at least in part, the right of cross examination was effectively denied appellants upon a crucial issue. Even under the liberal provisions of the Longshoremen's Act [33 U.S.C.A. § 901 et seq.], we cannot sanction this practice. As was said in Interstate Commerce Commission v. Louisville & N. R. Co., 227 U.S. 88, 33 S.Ct. 185, 187, 57 L.Ed. 431, 'But the more liberal the practice in admitting testimony, the more imperative the obligation to preserve the essential rules of evidence by which rights are asserted or defended. * * * All parties * * * must be given opportunity to cross-examine witnesses * *...